THE 

REFORMED CHURCH 

IN THE 

I 

NETHERLANDS. 

TRACED 

From A. D. 1340 to A.D. 1840, 

IN 

SHORT HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



BY / 

4 

Rev. MAUEICE G. HANSEN, A.M. 



NEW YORK: 

Board op Publication op the Reformed Church in America, 
34 Vesey Street. 
1884. 




Copyright, 1884, 

BY THE 

Board of Publication of the Reformed Church in America. 



PRINTED BY THE 

CHAS. M. GREEN PRINTING CO. 

74 AND 76 BEEKMAN STREET, 

NEW YORK. 



PREFACE. 



The attempt to reply satisfactorily to an inquiry con- 
cerning a couple of the earliest Synods of the Eeformed 
Church in the Netherlands, carried me farther than I at 
first designed. That inquiry, addressed to one of the 
Editors of the Christian Intelligencer, was by him re- 
ferred to me with the request that I would contribute a 
series of papers on these original assemblies. 

Reflecting upon the period in the history of the Ee- 
formed Church in which they occurred, I instinctively 
applied to it the term "formative." As I advanced in 
my investigations, not only was I prompted to retain 
that term because it clearly expressed the character of 
that period, but it also forcibly urged me to enter upon 
the study of the subsequent history. Indeed, as by a 
logical sequence, it led me to the division of that part of 
the history into equally plainly defined periods, and to 
the application to each of them of a title that should in 
like manner at once indicate its general tenor. 

Conscious of the necessity that, under the circum- 
stances, succinctness must characterize my contributions, 
it became my object to select, from the abundant mate- 
rial at hand, that which strikingly illustrates a compre- 
hensive governing idea or principle. When it had been 
clearly discerned, the hint of it was embodied in the 
heading of the chapter in which it was set forth and il- 
lustrated. Thus the appellations of the four designated 
periods, and the distinctive titles of the sketches under 



4 



PREFACE. 



each of them, together constitute an analysis of the His- 
tory, which may readily fix itself in the mind of the 
reader, while at the same time it points out the line along 
which a closer investigation may be pursued. 

The adoption of what may be called the biographical 
method of presenting the operation of a principle, and 
the introduction into the narrative of events, of seem- 
ingly trivial incidents, must be ascribed to the desire to 
make the history vivid and interesting to the general 
reader, as well as to the student of ecclesiastical annals, 
to whom, particularly, the copious index may prove of 
value. 

Thirty-seven of the forty-seven chapters of the book 
appeared in the columns of the Christian Intelligencer. 
These are now reprinted with necessary alterations and 
important additions. 

The favor with which these papers were received by 
the scholarly readers of that journal, encouraged me to 
accede to the frequently expressed wish that they might 
be put in a permanent form. 

A list of the sources and authorities that have been 
consulted, is subjoined for the convenience of those who 
desire to prosecute the study of this branch of historical 
literature. 

Notwithstanding the defects of my work, apparent to 
the eye of the severely impartial critic, the author trusts 
that the judgment passed upon it may be that of a kind 
charity. Especially he hopes that it may prove the 
means of stimulating the members of the Eeformed 
Church in their attachment to the Church of their Fa- 
thers, and all G-od's people of whatever name, who may 
be pleased to honor it with their notice, in their devo- 
tion to the Lord's cause and kingdom in the earth. 

m. a. h. 



LITERATURE. 



Acquoi, J. G. R. — Kerk en Staat ten tyde der Republiek. 

(XXXI. tafereel in Geschiedenis der Christelyke Kerk in 

Nederland.) 
Auerbach, B. — Spinoza. 

Bekentenisse of Belydenis des geloofs der Nederlandsche Gere- 

formeerde Kerken. 
Bekker, B. — De betooverde wereld. 
Brand, G. — Historie der Reformatio 

Calkoen, J. M. A. — De Synode te Dordrecht (X* taf. in Geschied. 

der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) 
D'Aubigne, J. M. — History of the Reformation in the time of 

Calvin. 

Diest-Lorgion, E. J. — De Nederduitsche Hervormde Kerk in 
Friesland. 

Het volksgeloof (XXII. taf. in Gesch. der 

Chr. Kerk in Nederl). 
Geschiedenis der Kerk-hervorming in ons 

Vaderland. 

Ducker, A. C. — Kerkelyke twisten. (XIX. taf. in Gesch. der 

Chr. Kerk in Ned.) 
Ens, Johannes. — Kort historisch berigt van de formulieren. 
Glasius, B. — Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Christelyke Kerk 

na de hervorming. 
s'Gravezande. — Eerste Synode der Nederlandsche Kerken. 
Handelingen der Hervormde Synoden. 

Le Long, Isaac. — Kort historisch verhaal van den eersten oor- 
sprong der Nederlandsche Kerken onder 't Kruis. 

Lohr, H. C. — Mystiek en Fanatisme. (XXIV taf. in Gesch. der 
Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) 

Motley, J. L. — Rise of the Dutch Republic. 



6 



LITERATURE. 



Oordeel (Het) van de Nationale Synode van Dordrecht over de 

vyf stukken der leere. 
Post- Acta van de Synode van Dordrecht. 
Schotel, G. D. J. — Anna Maria Van Schurman. 
Scott, Thomas. — Translation of articles of Synod of Dort. 
Spinoza, B. — Ethics. 

Ter Haar, B. — Stryd en verdeeldheid in de Nederlandsche Kerk. 

(XXXIII. taf. in Gesch. der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) 
Ueberweg, F. — History of Philosophy. 
Von Mosheim, J. L. — Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. 
Van Prinsterer, Groen — Handboek der Geschiedenis van het 

Vaderland. 

Wiarda, J. — Wysbegeerte en de Kerk (XXVI. taf. in Geschied. 

der Chr. Kerk in Nederl.) 
Ypey en Dermout. — Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Hervormde 
Kerk. 
Aanteekeningen. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 

PAGE 

I. The plan stated 13 

II. The influence of an advanced educational system. . . 17 

III. The influence of the diffusion of learning 23 

IV. The influence of a consecrated martyrdom 29 

V. The influence of a reformatory effort within the 

Church 35 

VI. The influence of a bold separatism 42 

VII. The adoption of a confession of faith 51 

VIII. Consolidation by means of dispersion 62 

IX. The formation of a liturgy 69 

X. The Synod of Wezel 75 

XI. The Synod of Embden 82 

XII. The Provincial Synod of Dordrecht 86 

XIII. The First National Synod of Dordrecht 92 

XIV. The Synod of Middelburg 99 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 

I. A preparatory survey 109 

II. Undirected liberty of conscience 115 

III. Politico-ecclesiasticism 121 

IV. Arminius . 126 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

V. The situation just before the great Synod of Dor- 

drecht 133 

VI. Arrangement and organization of the Synod of Dor- 

drecht 139 

VII. Doctrinal questions before the Synod 146 

VIII. The procedure of the Synod against the Remon- 
strants 153 

IX. Incidents connected with the condemnation of the 

Remonstrant tenets 160 

X. The doctrines of the Synod 166 

XI. The Post- Acta of the Synod 171 

XII. The adjournment of the Synod 178 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 

I. A bird's-eye view 187 

II. The new philosophy of doubt 193 

III. Erratic hermeneutics 198 

IV. Conservative scholasticism 204 

V. Bible-interpretation 208 

VI. Church-factions 213 

VII. Separatist mysticism 219 

VIII. Pantheistic fatalism 226 

IX. The influence of spirit on matter denied 232 

X. Rationalism applied to Christology 237 

XI. The state of the Church at the beginning of the 

eighteenth century 242 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 

I. Before and after the main event. 249 

II. Internal commotions 257 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE 

III. Arrogance of the State 264 

IV. The situation just before the revolution 270 

V. The State divorced from the Church 276 

VI. The Church during its independence 282 

VII. The Church and the kingdom 288 

VIII. The controversy quia — quatenus 294 

IX. The churches under the Cross. 298 

X. Conclusion 305 

The Index 313 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



Oi diet 7Zi<jt£gdS Kar?]yGoyiGavTO fiaffiXeiaS. 



THE 

REFORMED CHURCH m the NETHERLANDS, 



i. 

THE PLAN STATED. 

As in the case of Palestine, so also in that of the 
Netherlands, God selected a land insignificant because 
of its diminutiveness, for the operations of His provi- 
dence relating to His church, which were fraught with 
the utmost conceivable interest to the entire human 
race. It seemed as though in the latter it was to appear 
still more plainly than in the former, that, in respect 
to the unpromising aspect of territorial conditions, God 
chooses the weak things of the world to confound the 
mighty; for the country where the Eeformed Church 
had its birth, was not even, like that wherein the church 
which our Lord Jesus Christ founded had its origin, a 
land abounding in sunlit mountains and smiling valleys, 
but a tract wrested from the ocean, and, at the cost of un- 
ceasing vigilance, kept from falling back within the power 
of its remorseless grasp. 

It was over this small corner of Europe that, in the 
middle of the fourteenth century, the cloud of ignorance, 
superstition and bigotry cast a shadow as dark as that 
which rested upon any part of the continent. Cere- 
monies devoid of spirituality had taken the place of 

2 



14 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the worship of God in spirit and in truth. Adoration, 
instead of being directed to the Triune God only, had 
the saints for its object. The kingly priesthood of all 
believers in Jesus was ignored. Single individuals were 
deemed to be specially worthy of being invested with 
this exalted official function — these, with distinctions 
among themselves, removed at a graduated distance 
from each other, until the seat was reached of the eccle- 
siastical monarch who was enthroned in imperial Eome. 
The liberty wherewith Christ makes men free had been 
crushed under the yoke of a soul-enthralling bondage. 
The essential doctrine of justification by faith had been 
swept away, and for it was substituted the fiction of jus- 
tification by works and that of supererogation. Pardon 
of sin came to be bought and sold for fixed amounts of 
money. For obedience to Christ alone, speaking by 
His Word and Spirit, men were required to submit to 
the decrees of popes and councils. And who, even a 
century later, were the vicegerents of Christ, to whom 
the nations looked up and whose utterances were re- 
ceived as the utterances of the Holy Ghost? Alexander 
VI. (Borgia, 1492-1503) who shrank not from the com- 
mission of the gravest crimes, and who perished, as some 
report, by the poison that he had prepared for another; 
Julius II. (1503-1513) who seemed to apply himself to 
the military aggrandizement of the Italian peninsula, 
rather than the deliverance of the souls of men from 
the usurped dominion of the devil; LeoX. (1513-1521), 
a lover indeed of the arts and sciences, and in so far, less 
unworthy than his immediate predecessors of so promi- 
nent a position. 

The time for the Netherlands to emerge from beneath 
this gloomy pall, to arise ecclesiastically, in the form of 
the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church, from the re- 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



15 



ligious and moral death wherein they had been lying 
for centuries, had come. The voices that had sounded 
from the island in the northwest (Wickliffe, 1324- 
1384), from the vine-clad slopes in the southwest (Ber- 
nard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153) and from the east (Huss, 
1369-1415), had found an echo in the breasts of certain 
individuals in the Netherlands; and, acquiring new 
powers of resonance, were prolonged, until at last the 
sounds of the pure gospel of Jesus were heard in the 
cities and villages and the open country, with no earthly 
power capable of interfering, either with those who 
uttered them or with those who received them into re- 
joicing ears. 

The formative period of the Eeformed Church, cover- 
ing about two centuries and a half — from 1340, when 
Gerhard Groote was born, to 1618, when the great 
Synod of Dordrecht met and the formative period 
merged into that which may be characterized as the de- 
fensive— h one of the most intensely interesting of all 
history. 

In the attempt to secure a comprehensive view of it 
at a single glance, it is well to fix the gaze upon the sal- 
ient points which may easily be retained in the mind 
and readily recalled with all their attendants of person- 
ages and circumstances. 

It may be considered in three parts: The Eeformed 
Church prepared for (1340-1562); consolidating (1562- 
1568); and organized and established (1568-1581). The 
first centres upon a band of prominent men; the second, 
upon two prominent events; the third, upon the forma- 
tion of a liturgy, and five prominent church assemblies. 

The men concerning whom we propose to give brief 
biographical sketches, illustrative of the preparation for 
the foundation of the Eeformed Church, are Gerhard 



16 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Groote, representing the influence of an advanced edu- 
cational system; Gerard Gerardsz, representing the in- 
fluence of learning and its diffusion by means of the 
newly-invented printing-press; Pistorius, representing 
the influence of a consecrated martyrdom; Angelus 
Merula, representing the influence of a reformatory effort 
within the church; and Menno Simons, representing the 
influence of a bold separatism. 

The prominent events referred to are the adoption of 
a confession of faith at Antwerp in 1566, and the com- 
mission of the Duke of Alva followed by a fierce 
persecution. 

The Synods embraced in the third part, are those of 
Wezel (1568), Embden (1571), the provincial (1574), 
and the national (1*577) of Dordrecht, and Middleburg 
(1581). 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



17 



II. 

THE INFLUENCE OF AN ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL 
SYSTEM. 

In the fourteenth century, superstition and barbarism 
in the Church, and also in the state, since correctness in 
civil things disappears when religion has become desti- 
tute of spiritual force, were at their height and had 
reached the proportions wherein, with the certainty that 
characterizes the pendulum's swing between opposite 
extreme points, a reaction had become inevitable. The 
calamities and the distress of the times had become in- 
describable. There were contentions between the ponti- 
fical power (Boniface VIII.) and the civil power (Philip 
the Fair of France), resulting in the removal of the seat 
of Papal government from Eome to Avignon and in 
what is called the Babylonish captivity. Subsequently, 
there were conflicts between ecclesiastical factions, each 
of them rallying around the person of its own represent- 
ative, and resulting in the singular and anomalous spec- 
tacle of the existence at the same time of two pontiffs, 
each one claiming to be the true Vicegerent of Christ 
on earth. What but perplexity and anxiety could come 
from this to all who thought that without subjection to 
the representative of Christ they could not be saved? 
The expenses incurred by the duplicate papal courts, 
each organized on a footing of great extravagance, were 
enormous. As sources of revenue, titles were issued 
to those who would pay for them, and the fears of the 



18 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



guilty, who were willing to give their gold that the sting 
might be taken out of their consciences, were allayed. 
The under-clergy who did not throw off all restraint and 
live in open profligacy, occupied themselves with the 
hair-splitting dialectics of the schoolmen. Troops of idle 
mendicants strolled through the countries, and the relig- 
ious orders of the Francisicans and the Dominicans, in- 
stead of uniting in the effort to promote the spiritual 
interests of the people, quarreled among themselves for 
the supremacy. 

Among the people it was starless night. Of the truths 
of the gospel they were kept in entire ignorance. The 
desire for a reformation in the church, in capite et in 
membris, became a reigning passion in the breasts of the 
few whom God always reserves to himself. But how 
was it to be effected? As sheep which the shepherd has 
forsaken will flock the closer together in a time of 
apprehended danger, so in this century the good and the 
honest associated themselves for mutual profiting in 
spiritual things, and for the benefit of those around them 
whom they might be able to reach. 

The central figure about whom such spirits in the 
Netherlands rallied, and who became the founder of in- 
stitutions of a religious educational character which there 
and in other lands were perpetuated through centuries, 
until they made way, among Protestants, for a better 
school, and among Roman Catholics, for those of a Jesuit- 
ical order — was Gerhard Groote. He was born in De- 
venter in 1340, of very respectable parents. The family 
appears to have been possessed of wealth. When a young 
man he secured the best education that the times could 
afford, and in Paris and Cologne pursued the study of the 
sciences and of theology with such zeal that he soon 
acquired a reputation for great learning. Returning to 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



10 



his native land, he was called upon to occupy positions 
of honor and respectability. 

One day he visited a Carthusian convent near Arn- 
heim, whose superior had been his confessor when he 
was in Paris. That visit was the means of changing the 
entire coarse of his subsequent life. His friend con- 
versed with him most earnestly upon the vanity of all 
earthly prosperity, death, eternity, and the summum 
bonum, with the effect that Groote resigned his honors, 
relinquished the advantages of his wealth, took up his 
abode within the convent, and applied himself to the 
reading of the Scripture and to meditation. After a 
certain time, receiving permission from the powerful 
bishop of Utrecht, he began to address the people upon 
religious topics, in their native language, at Deventer, 
Zwol, Kampen, Utrecht, Leyden, Delft, Gouda, Amster- 
dam, and so successfully that crowds thronged to hear 
him. The thoughts thrown out by him and his suces- 
sors were such as these: 

Many listen to the mass who are in mortal sin; for 
them the mass availeth not. One must pray from the 
heart, with the mouth, and by his works. When our 
conduct harmonizes with our thoughts and our words, 
a sweet melody sounds in the ears of God. I would rather 
have you turn the heart toward God for two minutes, 
than to spend an entire day in thoughtless reading. If 
hell be our desert, it will be a worse place for us than for 
Jews or heathen. He who dies in his sins perishes, 
though the Virgin and all the saints interceded for him. 
The nobility which is of the birth and after the flesh 
only, is of no account in the esteem of God. To him 
who obeys, eternal life can be promised, without purga- 
tory. A sister obedient and docile, though poor, is to 
be preferred to one who is rich, though destitute of these 



20 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

graces. When the simplest person who on earth lives 
virtuously shall come to see God, he shall be wiser than 
all the learned of this world. Would we therefore be 
wise hereafter, let us learn to be obedient. 

As he fearlessly exposed the evil of the times, he made 
many enemies, and consequently permission to preach 
was withdrawn. Eecognizing the authority of the 
Church in such matters, he submitted, but his influence 
for good ceased not to be exerted. He gathered around 
him a band of young men to whom he gave instruction 
in private, and whom he put in the way of earning 
a competence by transcribing the sacred books, which 
in these days included not only inspired Scripture, but 
also the writings of the Fathers. Among these young- 
men was the afterward celebrated Florentius Radewynsz. 
One day the latter addressed Groote: 

" Dear master, what harm if my fellow-clerks and I 
put our earnings together and live in common?" 

"In common?" was the reply/' but the mendicants 
will not allow this. They will certainly oppose it with 
all their might." 

"But, master, suppose we try it. Perhaps God will 
give his blessing upon it." 

" Well, then," Groote answered, " in his name make 
the trial. I shall defend you against every assailant." 

And this was the starting-point of the Institution of 
the Brethren" or the Common Life, an agency pro- 
ductive for years of an incalculable amount of good, both 
to the membership and to the people of the places 
where the Brotherhood became established, in the ef- 
forts that were put forth to instruct and enlighten every 
one who could be reached. From the tree thus planted 
in the Netherlands, was gathered such fruit as Thomas 
a Kempis, the author of the inimitable " Imitation of 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



21 



Christ;" Zerbolt, who so nobly argued for the translation 
of the Bible and devotional books into the vernacular; 
Wessel Gansvort, and Erasmus. 

" The root of your study," said Groote to the mem- 
bers of his fraternity/' and the mirror of your lives, 
should be the Gospel, which sets before us the Life of 
Christ; then, the biographies and the sayings of the 
Fathers; then, the epistles of Paul and the histories of 
the Apostles; and finally, the writings of Bernard, An- 
selm, Augustine and others." The great design of Groote 
was to join education to religion, or rather, to make edu- 
cation prepare the way for religion. The schools which 
Charlemagne, and his son, the Emperor Lewis, had or- 
dered the chapters and the monks to establish through- 
out the empire, and which, in the case of the chapters, 
were held outside of their cathedrals, and in that of the 
monks, within the convent walls, had, through the ig- 
norance and the carelessness of their teachers, fallen into 
decay. Groote regretted this, and he applied himself to 
their restoration. He was so efficient in this that soon 
numerous young men flocked to Deventer, and schools 
were established also at Zwol, Groningen, Amersfort, 
Utrecht, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp. These schools 
took a strong hold upon the affections of the people of 
the Netherlands. They manifested their interest in 
them by opening their homes for the accommodation of 
the young students — in some instances eight or ten 
young men being received into one family and provided 
with board and lodging free of charge. Even mechanics, 
dependent for the support of themselves and their fam- 
ilies upon daily labor, hesitated not to vacate one room 
in the house for the benefit of a scholar. Thus early 
was the importance of religious culture to intelligent 
piety recognized. 



22 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

As thus contributing toward the Eeformation in the 
Netherlands together with a reaction from the prevalent 
corruption, Gerhard Groote may well be regarded as a 
stone in the foundation walls upon which it pleased God, 
two centuries later, to erect the temple of the Protest- 
ant Dutch Eeformed Church. This noble man went to 
his rest in 1384, in the forty-fifth year of his age. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



23 



III. 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE DIFFUSION OF LEAENING. 

The fifteenth century is a very remarkable one be- 
cause of a number of events that occurred in the course 
of it, so important each of them as to be worthy of a 
special notice. They were, as we now see them to have 
been, full of promise as regards the promotion of the 
best interests of man, for the reason that they are more 
or less closely related to the restoration of the purity of 
the faith, and to the extension of the kingdom of God 
into a hitherto unknown portion of the globe. 

During that century the art of printing was invented 
(1423); Constantinople was captured by the Turks and 
the scholars who had been collected within its walls were 
scattered over Europe (1453); Luther was born (1483); 
America was discovered (1492); and a path eastward was 
traced around the Cape of Good Hope (1498). 

The value of the first-mentioned of these events — the 
invention of the art of printing by a native of the Neth- 
erlands — is perceived to be great indeed, as it is meas- 
ured by the importance of another event that took place 
within the bounds of that same favored land, in the 
birth of the man who, while the art of printing was still 
in its infancy, consecrated it by making it subservient 
to the issue of a new edition of the Greek New Testa- 
ment, which he also translated into pure Latin and en- 
riched with learned annotations. 

One day in the year 1423 a citizen of Haarlem, John 



24 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Laurens Koster, then fifty-three years old, sat down to 
rest in the woods near his native city. He amused him- 
self by cutting with his pen-knife, from the bark of a 
tree, the letters of the alphabet. He thought he would 
take them home to his children and wrapped them in a 
piece of paper. When he had returned to his family he 
undid the package, and behold, the sap in the green 
bark had been the means of transferring to the paper 
the form of the letter that had been next to it. This 
was the origin of that tremendous power for good or for 
evil by which, ever since the time that it was brought 
into existence, the world has been swayed. Immediately 
it began to make its influence felt. The sacred books 
which hitherto had been transcribed by hand at a great 
expenditure of time and labor, now could be multiplied 
at a very small proportion of either, and could be ob- 
tained, consequently, at a greatly diminished cost. To 
be sure, avarice attempted to neutralize that effect, in 
that, the type being molded after the form of letters in 
use by amanuenses, there appeared so little difference 
between a printed book and a written one, that the for- 
mer was sold at Paris to an unskilled person for sixty 
crowns, which was the price of the latter; but the decep- 
tion soon came to be exposed and could no more avail 
those who were disposed to practice it. Great were the 
facilities which then were furnished for the dissemina- 
tion of the results of the labors of the scholars who had 
been confined to the East, but who, driven thence be- 
fore the victorious banner of Mahomet II., now pursued 
their study of the Greek and Roman classics in the Euro- 
pean cities where they had found a refuge, and, with 
the aid of the printing-press, laid the gems of ancient 
literature before every one whom inclination, wealth 
and leisure enabled to employ this means of mental cult- 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



25 



nre. Singularly enough, too, this very invention, in- 
comparable for the issues dependent upon it, helped, by 
the very brightness of the light which it cast, to increase 
the moral darkness prevalent in the church; but, for 
that reason, too, subserving the interests of the Reforma- 
tion by intensifying a desire for it. Idleness is the 
mother of wickedness, and the men who formerly were 
kept busy in the copying of the Scripture and of the 
writings of the Fathers, having had their occupation 
taken from them, had time given them, to waste in the 
gratification of the base appetites of the flesh, and to 
pervert in occupations altogether foreign to the great 
interest to which they had consecrated their lives. 

It may readily be perceived, if a man of great learning 
and favorable to the Reformation were to arise in the 
Netherlands, how strong the bearing would be upon his 
influence of Roster's happy thought. Such a man did 
arise. He was the man whom few know by the humble 
name of Gerard Gerardsz, but who, as Desiderius Eras- 
mus, is of an immortal and world-wide reputation. 
When Thomas a Kempis was an old man of eighty-seven; 
when Wessel Gansvort and Agricola were in the prime 
of manhood, the one in his forty-eighth year and the 
other in his thirty- eighth; when sixteen years more were 
to elapse before Luther should come, Erasmus was born 
in Rotterdam, on Oct. 28, 1467. A claim for the honor 
of his birth has been made by Gouda, but it has not 
been substantiated. Beza said of him that the world 
has not contained another such a great man. His ear- 
liest education he received at the schools of Gouda and 
Utrecht. In his eleventh year he was sent to the cele- 
brated school which Groote had established in Deventer. 
Here he made such progress that Agricola, on the occa- 
sion of a visit to the school, predicted his future great - 
3 



26 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

ness. After a stay there of two years lie went to Herto- 
genbosch, where he remained for the same length of 
time. When he was in that school the attempt was 
made to induce him to assume the vows of monasticism, 
but it failed since he strenuously resisted every proposi- 
tion of the kind. His next retreat was a convent near 
Arnheim which was known by the Scriptural name of 
Emmaus. Here he accumulated knowledge to the de- 
gree that his reputation for learning became continental. 
The Bishop of Kameryk engaged him to act as his secre- 
tary during a visit to Eome for the transaction of impor- 
tant business. The project, however, was not carried 
out, and Erasmus, being released, went to Paris and 
other university cities. He wrote numerous erudite 
works, among which the above-mentioned edition of the 
New Testament, printed at Basle in 1516, and his far- 
famed " Praise of Folly," are the most noted. 

In regard to his relation to the Reformation there are 
differing opinions. Some go so far as to say that he was 
at the foundation of the Reformation; that Luther 
worked after the plan furnished by him; that he was 
the flame at which the great German reformer afterward 
kindled his torch; that he was the Moses to the Lutheran 
Joshua; and that the correctness of these opinions has 
its witness in the fact that the first Reformers in the 
Netherlands were not called Lutherans, but Erasmians. 
Hugo Grotius speaks of him in the highest commenda- 
tory terms as the first and the greatest of the Reformers, 
and ends an elegant Latin panegyric, of which he is the 
subject, with the lines: 

" When I perceive how death cuts down the gods among us here, 
The rustling of a leaf's enough to fill my soul with fear." 

It must be admitted with Ypey and Dermout, that he 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



27 



exerted an influence in behalf of the Beformation in that, 
casting light upon the literature of the ancients, he 
awakened a keen appreciation of the beautiful ; in that, 
casting light upon the several departments of theologi- 
cal science, he awakened a strong love for true, which 
he had discovered under the false by which it had come 
to be obscured and rendered imperceptible; and in that, 
casting light upon the hidden ways of wickedness 
wherein many ecclesiastics walked, he awakened an ear- 
nest desire after the good in thought and conduct. Van 
Prinsterer admits that he forged weapons for the re- 
formers and removed many an obstacle that lay in their 
path, but denies that he was a reformer in the evangeli- 
cal sense of the word. He says that Erasmus had no true 
insight into the substance of the errors that had crept 
into the church, and that he zealously maintained, even 
against Luther, such a freedom of the human will as is 
inconsistent with justification through faith alone. He 
lacked the courage which, in the fear of the Lord, has 
no regard to danger. He desired peace even at the ex- 
pense of the truth. "When oppression and persecution 
for the Gospel's sake appeared, he was offended and im- 
mediately withdrew. He loved the honor that comes 
from men more than that which comes from God. He 
said, "Let others seek martyrdom; as for me I am un- 
worthy of it." He seemed to have forgotten that the 
Lord said, He that loveth his life more than Me is not 
worthy of Me. 

A middle position between the two extreme opinions 
of the merits of Erasmus as an ante-reformer, is probably 
the correct one. His influence as a learned man who 
applied his immense erudition to a better interpretation 
of the Scripture, was very great. That influence God 
doubtless designed to use as a preparation for the Ref or- 



28 EEFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

mation when He gave to men the art of multiplying the 
results of learning, just before he brought Erasmus upon 
the scene. G-erardsz died in Rotterdam in 1536, of dys- 
entery, in the full use, to the last, of his mighty intel- 
lect, and wholly trusting in the infinite mercy of God in 
Christ. A statue of the great man is one of the orna- 
ments of his native city. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



29 



IV. 

THE INFLUENCE OF A CONSECRATED MARTYRDOM. 

When the first quarter of the sixteenth century had 
come to an end, the Beformation was making great 
progress. Eight years before (1517), Luther had nailed 
his ninety-five theses against the door of the church at 
Wittemberg. Melancthon, Luther's friend and fellow- 
soldier, was twenty-eight years old, and, with the cunning 
of the serpent and gentleness of the dove, was furthering 
the cause of the gospel. Zwingle, thirteen years older 
than Melancthon, was sounding the trumpet in the land 
of snow-capped mountains, Switzerland; and Calvin was 
a youth of sixteen in France, preparing himself uncon- 
sciously for the great work which God was about to 
commit to his hands. It was not possible that the 
leaven, which was thus working among the nations, 
should not influence also the people among whom Ger- 
hard Groote, Gansvort, Zerbolt and Agricola had taught, 
and Erasmus still was a shining light. 

If the hierarchy had met in solemn conclave for the 
purpose of devising means by the use of which the leaven 
was to be made still more efficient to pervade the entire 
mass of the people, it could not have adopted an agency 
better calculated to produce this result than the erection 
of the stake and the sacrifice, in the fiery flames kindled 
around it, of the proto-martyr Pistorius. He perished 
as to his poor, weak body, but his cause acquired greater 
strength from this injudicious attempt to overthrow it. 



30 REFORMED CHTTRCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

It is the lesson which all history teaches and shall con- 
tinue to teach, until the stream of events, for which God 
-has marked out its proper course, shall no more burst 
beyond its banks in destructive inundations because all 
efforts to dam up its waters have ceased. 

John De Bakker, or, John Van Woerden, whose 
name, according to the custom of the times, was changed 
into the much more euphonious one of Pistorius, was 
born in Woerden, in 1499. His father held the humble 
position of sexton to the church in that city, but still 
seems to have been a man of some consequence, since he 
is reputed to have been the friend of Erasmus. He 
early designed his son for the priesthood, and sent him 
to the school of Utrecht of which John Rhodius was 
rector. Ehodius was a diligent student of the New 
Testament, and aided in the translation of it into the 
Dutch, which was published in Amsterdam in 1525. 
As the father of Pistorius suspected the rector of hold- 
ing Lutheran views, he removed his son from Utrecht 
and sent him to Louvain. Having finished his prepara- 
tory studies, the young man, then twenty-three years 
old, was ordained to the priesthood in Utrecht. In 
submitting to this ordination, he rather pleased his father 
than himself. His ministry commenced in his native 
city. As he was thought to depart in his pulpit services 
from the teachings of the Church, he was summoned to 
Utrecht, but, fearful of the result, he refused to go, and, 
upon complaint of the authorities of Utrecht to the court 
of Holland, was arrested by the commandant of the 
fortress of Woerden and cast into the prison, The 
citizens of Woerden, however, regarded this arrest as an 
unwarrantable encroachment upon their privileges, and 
loudly protested. The consequence was that Pistorius 
was set at liberty, upon the pretext that a contagious 



FORMATIVE PEKlOD. 



31 



disease had broken out among the prisoners. He then 
went to Wittemberg, the head-quarters of the German 
reformation, for the purpose of seeing and hearing 
Luther. 

Upon his return after three months, he was a second 
time summoned to Utrecht, and was ordered to go to 
Rome and to remain there three years. In the con- 
viction that obedience to this command would not 
result in producing an alteration in his opinions of the 
doctrines and the practices of the Church, and dreading 
the effects of his contumacy, since an order for his arrest 
had again been issued from Utrecht, he went for greater 
safety to the province of Holland. Deeming himself 
now wholly released from his priestly vows, and his 
official connection with the Church to have been sun- 
dered, he established himself in Woerden as a private 
citizen, married, and earned his subsistence by working 
at the trade of a baker, or as a laborer on a farm. Dur- 
ing the evenings he privately taught the truths of the 
gospel to his neighbors in their homes. ' He might have 
gone on thus to the end of his life, were it not that the 
visit to Woerden of one who offered indulgences to the 
people, kindled his zeal anew. He again entered the 
confessional and there labored to implant in all who 
came to him, the principles of a true Christian religion, 
according to which absolution was not a matter of sale 
and purchase; and to strengthen the weak and disturbed 
consciences of men with the gospel of Christ. The 
regular priest then laid charges against him before the 
magistrates of the city, but not so persistently that these 
felt impelled to take any action upon them. In the 
event of this priest's decease, which occurred soon after, 
his successor, not so leniently disposed, pursued the 
matter and secured a summons to Pistorius to appear 



32 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

for examination. In answer to inquiries concerning his 
views in regard to the papacy, purgatory and the say- 
ings of the Fathers, he replied that in vain is God wor- 
shipped by means of human institutions. In reference 
to his marriage he expressed a desire to be heard before 
a larger and a more learned court. The result of this 
proceeding not proving satisfactory to the complainant, 
he forwarded an accusation against Pistorius to the re- 
gent, Margaret of Austria, by whose orders the latter was 
seized and conveyed to the Hague. Here his imprison- 
ment was shared by others who were suspected of hav- 
ing adopted the opinions of Luther or Zwingle. They 
were Bernard, a Carmelite monk, who afterward suf- 
fered martyrdom; Sartor, the rector of the Latin school 
at Noordwyk; JSTamrius, the rector of the Latin school 
at Alkmaar; Fredericks, a scholar of Naarden; Hoon, a 
lawyer of Holland, and Gnaphaeus, the rector of the 
Latin school at the Hague. The last mentioned lived 
to publish a full account of the examination of Pistorius. 
Three professors of the University of Louvain were 
appointed to confer with Pistorius. They were Van 
Bergen, Eosemond and Tapper. This number was af- 
terward increased by five more men, dignitaries in the 
Church and in the State. They conjointly labored hard 
to bring Pistorius to a change of views. At the last 
even the aged father of the prisoner was introduced into 
the dungeon, but without avail, the patriarch rather 
encouraging his son, and saying that, like Abraham of 
old, he was prepared to give him up, thus giving evi- 
dence to a state of mind different from that only a few 
years before when he feared that his son would be led 
astray by the evangelical tendency of Ehodius. 

The examination was protracted through several days. 
Pistorius said that he could be deceived by the teachings 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



33 



of men, but not by Holy Scripture. The Church of 
Christ has but one teacher of the truth, the Heavenly 
Spirit, who. proceedeth from the Father. Since the 
Spirit is the author of Holy Scripture, which, according 
to Peter, is not of private interpretation, it is not sur- 
prising that Christ directs us to it for our faith, saying, 
Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me. We are 
commanded to listen to Christ Himself, since the Voice 
from Heaven says to us, Hear ye Him. Every command- 
ment that is not found in the canonical Scripture, is 
powerless to bind the conscience. For the right to 
marry, Pistorius appealed to the Word of God. When 
Tapper offered him the privilege of the confessional, he 
accepted it. He confessed that in the sight of God he 
was a depraved sinner, who could not stand if God were 
to enter into judgment with him, but that he based his 
hope upon the exceeding and precious goodness of Him 
who delivered His Son for us, even unto death. "This 
faith is so assuring and quieting to me," said he, "that 
it is easy for me to enter into the shadows of death, in 
the full expectation of a better lot, for which we look 
when we shall have departed from this life. May God 
strengthen me in this faith, and to Him be the praise 
forever, Amen." 

Tapper demanding a detailed statement of his sins, 
did not approve of this confession. Pistorius was then 
condemned to death. History preserves a graphic ac- 
count of the last scene. 

On September 15, 1525, a platform might have been 
seen in front of the Prince's palace, at the Hague. Upon 
it, in the centre, was a pulpit. In a semi-circle around 
the pulpit were several chairs, upholstered in red. They 
were occupied by Eidderus, Bishop of Hebron and 
consecrating Bishop of Utrecht; several ecclesiastics; 



34 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the earl of Hoogstraten, Stadtholder of Holland; a num- 
ber of counsellors of the imperial court at the Hague, 
and three theologians from the University of Louvain. 
One of the ecclesiastics entered the pulpit. He ad- 
dressed the august assembly before him, and a countless 
throng around the platform, from the text in Acts iii. 
19, " Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your 
sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing 
shall come from the presence of the Lord/' As in that 
discourse the preacher attempted to show that Pistorius 
was a great criminal, the latter, at the end of it, turned 
toward the people and protested. He was silenced. 
Ridderus approached and divested him of his priest's 
garments. Pistorius declared, " In the dress of a citizen 
I look more like a Christian than I did before." A yellow 
tunic was put upon his person, and a fool's cap placed 
on his head. " It is well," said Pistorius, "in this array, 
I share in the mockery that was heaped upon Christ." 
His sentence then was read to him and he was led to the 
stake. On the way thither they passed the prison. 
Pistorius cried, " Very dear brothers, I stand upon the 
threshold of my martyrdom. Be of good cheer. As 
valiant soldiers, and stimulated by my example, defend 
the truth of the gospel against all detraction." He was 
answered with songs of praise. As they were binding 
him to the stake, he exclaimed, "Death, where is now 
thy sting? Grave, where is now thy victory? Death 
is swallowed up in victory through Christ." He then 
prayed for his judges, "Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do." His last words were, " 0 Lord 
Jesus, Son of Cod, remember me; have mercy on me." 
Having uttered them he instantly expired. 

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



35 



V. 

THE INFLUENCE OF A REFORMATORY EFFORT WITHIN 
THE CHURCH. 

1^ the city of Briel is an orphan asylum. On the 26th 
of July, every year, the anniversary of the death of the 
founder is kept by the inmates of the institution. The 
meals are made somewhat more elaborate than usual by 
the addition of dainties. The presiding officer speaks 
of the virtues of the deceased and narrates the story of 
his sad fate. The children sing appropriate songs, and 
among them one which we venture to render as follows: 

" Dear friend of man! our grateful songs ascend 
To heaven, thy blest abode, where all thy sufferings end. 
Where, sanctified by faith, thou joinest in the praise 
The angels give to God, through all thy happy days. 
Despised thou wert on earth. Here thou wert trodden down ; 
But there, as thy reward, thou hast a shining crown. 

" O Merula, whose thoughts of us were ever sweet and kind, 
We would, in following thee, the path of virtue find. 
In every thankful heart a monument we raise 
To thy great love for us, deserving of all praise. 
Of Merula we sing. To him lift up your voice. 
Because of him, to-day, we're happy and rejoice." 

Engle Merle, Latinized Angelus Merula, whose Chris- 
tian charity is thus annually commemorated, was born in 
Briel in 1482. He was of a noble family, and was pos- 
sessed of great wealth, a considerable portion of which 
he devoted to the erection of comfortable dwellings for 



36 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the poor of his city and to the endowment of the orphan- 
age which he had founded. At the University of Paris 
he prepared himself for the priesthood, and he was or- 
dained in Utrecht, on April 11, 1511, when he was 
twenty-nine years of age. The year after, he received a 
call from the Lord of Kruningen to assume the pastorate 
of the church at Heenvliet, a large and important village 
situated within that nobleman's domain. Here he la- 
bored for twenty-two years, making himself exceedingly 
beloved to the people to whom he ministered. At the 
end of that time he sought to obtain his release, being 
actuated by the desire to secure in a restful retirement 
preparation for his approaching decease. He was released 
from his charge and prepared for death, but not in the 
way that he had anticipated. His Lord and Master had 
another way for him. 

Contemporary with the influences tending toward the 
Eeformation, that have already been spoken of in former 
chapters, was that of a reformatory effort within the 
church. The number, in the Netherlands, of scholars 
prominent for their learning, and also of ecclesiastics 
who agree with the Eeformers of Germany, Switzerland 
and France in the opinion that there is nothing author- 
itative in the teachings and institutions which are of a 
human origin, but that all controlling power for the 
heart and the conscience lies in the gospel, was very great 
indeed. In Friesland alone the priests of more than 
fifty villages were deposed by the Duke of Alva and ban- 
ished for their suspected attachment to Luther. A monk 
of the convent Thabor, in the neighborhood of Sneek, 
in that province, who wrote a history of that region, says 
that there were many priests and scholars who agreed 
with Luther, because he proved his points so clearly by 
the gospel and the epistles of Paul that the learned 



FOEMATIVE PEKIOD. 



37 



could not but assent. These men could not bear the 
idea of seceding from the church, but, realizing that 
something must be done to restore the truths of the gos- 
pel which were fast passing out of sight altogether, and 
feeling their hearts responding to the efforts of Luther 
and his co-laborers, they endeavored to effect within the 
church that for which they earnestly longed. It was the 
repetition of the new patch on the old garment, of the 
new wine in the old bottles. That the common people 
were in a state of mind, in respect to which they might 
look for encouragement in their efforts, has its illustra- 
tion, in one particular, in the influence exerted by what 
is known as the association of the rhetoricians. These 
clubs were formed as early as the fourteenth century. 
They were composed of learned men, ecclesiastics at first, 
but afterward laymen principally. Their design was 
the study of poetry, and the instruction of the people by 
means of spectacular representations. Subsequently, 
when even the common people in their homes, markets, 
shops, and fields, were discussing theology, religious 
topics chiefly were dramatized. From the Society at 
Ghent the question went out, What contributes most to 
the comfort of dying man? The various answers re- 
turned, and represented to the people by means of im- 
personations, differed considerably from the teachings of 
the church on that point, and show not only why King 
Philip decreed that such spectacles could only be given 
under the supervision of the priest of the place, but also, 
how much reason the reformers within the church had 
for the opinion that among the people there would be no 
lack of sympathy with their utterances. The society at 
Brussels answered, The promises of the gospel; that of 
Leftingen, The hope of the mercy of Christ; that of 
Bruges, Confidence in Christ alone according to the gos- 
4 



38 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

pel; that of Nieuwkerk, Belief in the death and the resur- 
rection of Christ; that of Antwerp, Belief in the resurrec- 
tion of the body in the last day, in connection with faith 
in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

The reformers who in the Netherlands attempted the 
reformation of the church, within the church, were Syl- 
vius, Veluanus, Merula, and later, Duifhuis (1531-1581). 
Among these, Merula is foremost because of his charac- 
ter, and because of the intensity of his sufferings pro- 
tracted through five years, by which he set the seal to 
the strength of his convictions, the sincerity of his pur- 
poses, and the disinterestedness of his efforts. He was 
a man who, because of his excellent reputation, his great 
learning, his astonishing eloquence, his uncommon piety 
and his inexhaustible charity, time and again awakened 
the sympathy and the compassion of the civil authorities 
in his behalf, so that in consequence of it the ecclesias- 
tical power occasionally relaxed in the rigor of its pro- 
ceedings against him. Of these proceedings which ended 
finally near, not at, the stake, a detailed account cannot 
be given because of the length of the history which yet 
is of very great interest. Merula was arraigned upon a 
charge of heresy based upon certain alterations which he 
had made in the Mass-book; upon a number of memo- 
randa found written upon his copy of the Interim, which 
Charles V. had ordered to be composed for the purpose 
of reconciling the then growing differences between 
Protestants and Roman Catholics; and upon the testi- 
mony of some of his parishioners. The alteration in the 
Mass-book was of this kind: In the sentence "Omnipo- 
tens sempiterne Deus qui nos omnium Sanctorum merita 
sub una tribuisti celebritate venerari quaesumus, ut de- 
sideratam nobis tuae propitiationis abundantiam, multi- 
plicatis intercessoribus, largiaris," he substituted the 



FOEMATIVE PEEIOD. 



39 



word gloria, for the word meritaj and, for multiplicatis 
intercessoribus, he wrote, solius unigeniti tai, qui om- 
nium sanctorum est gloria, intercessione (by the advo- 
cacy of Thy only begotten Son, who is the glory of all 
the Saints). The memoranda on the pages of the In- 
terim related to the intercession of the Virgin, the justi- 
fying merits of good works, the doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation, and the claims of the Pope. His prosecutors 
were the inquisitors Sonnius and Tapper. He was ar- 
rested in 1553, when he was engaged in his study in the 
composition of a sermon on the Good Shepherd, John 
x. On June 7 he was removed to the Hague. At 
his trial there he was forced to reply categorically, " I 
believe," or "I do not believe," to 108 articles gathered 
from his writings. He declared that he was not con- 
scious of having strayed from the church; nay, on the 
contrary, he had always remained in it and he expected 
to continue in it. As to his notes on the Interim, he had 
never mentioned them in public, nor had he made them 
the topics of discussion. With other theologians he had 
been summoned by their superiors to come to Utrecht 
for the purpose of examining the articles of the Interim. 
Compelled by sickness to remain at Lome, he had made 
some notes in regard to which he had never made any 
disturbance. They were for his own use only. He 
thought that the councils of Pisa, Yincentia, and that 
being held at Trent (1546-1563), allowed the members to 
annotate the points in regard to which there might be 
discussions. Such notes as these the inquisitors had 
taken, and on the ground of them charged him with 
heresy. 

When it was rumored that he was about to be sen- 
tenced, great crowds of people came from all parts of the 
land, crying, We have been deprived of our father, advo- 



40 KEF OK MED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

cate, provider, only comfort and helper in our poverty 
and adversity. The people were very much excited. 
Many were armed and stones were at hand for all. Mat- 
ters assumed a very serious aspect. The magistrates felt 
that their lives were threatened, and they trembled for 
the safetv of the city. But the danger was averted bv a 
means against the use of which by Hollanders, and these, 
Christians, aud these, ecclesiastics, the historian Brand 
strongly protests. He was told with much earnestness 
and show of feeling that very many lives depended upon 
the course which he should adopt. He was asked to 
assent, for the sake of restoring quiet, to the statement 
that, as he differed from the customs and usages of the 
church which were of an indifferent nature, he admitted 
that he had proceeded somewhat too hastily in the effort 
to correct them. Merula turned toward the president 
of the council and said, What shall I do? The answer 
was, Ask your conscience, and not any outside person. 
Merula, on account of deafness not understanding what 
was said, but, presuming that he was advised to do as 
was required, replied that he assented. He was imme- 
diately led out into the presence of the crowd. A docu- 
ment was rapidly read in which it was stated that the 
prisoner adjured all Lutheran heresies and submitted to 
the church. The tone of the people instantly changed 
from pity to anger and imprecation. The sentence was 
then pronounced. Merula's books were to be burned, 
he himself was to be imprisoned for life, and he was con- 
demned to pay the costs of his arrest, imprisonment and 
trial. When he was informed by his nephew, William 
Merle, a brother's -son, who till the last exhibited the ut- 
most affection and devotion to his unfortunate uncle, of 
the nature of the proceeding, the old man's indignation 
and grief were intense. He was thrown by the distress 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



41 



of his mind into a severe illness. He did not deny the 
doctrine of the gospel as he had learned and taught it. 
This he declared with emphasis as soon as he recovered. 
From this time on he was treated as a lapsed heretic. 
He was taken to Delft, and afterward, to get him away 
from the jurisdiction of the states of Holland, to Louvain, 
Lessieux, and finally, to Bergen. He was taken to the 
last place in 1557. There he was sentenced to die by 
fire, King Philip II. having given the order that his case 
should be brought to a close. When after a long time 
intelligence of the sentence reached William Merle, he 
traveled night and day toward Brussels. He applied to 
Tapper, who told him that by that time the execution 
doubtless had already taken place. Still he hurried on to- 
ward Bergen. He arrived there on J uly 26, at ten o'clock 
in the morning, just as his aged uncle, seventy-five years 
old, leaning on his staff, so changed in his countenance 
by the effect of his last six weeks' imprisonment in hun- 
ger and thirst, filth and vermin, that his nephew scarcely 
recognized him, was led out to execution. The martyr 
had addressed those who were to put him to death. He 
had a message to the people who surrounded the sad pro- 
cession. He turned toward William and commended 
to his care the institution that he had founded for his 
children, the orphans, and gave utterance to the hope 
that the government, more merciful than the inquisitors, 
would permit the funds that he had given to be applied 
to its benefit. He then asked leave to pray. It was al- 
lowed. He sank down on his knees. After a moment 
he was seen to lean over to one side. They rushed 
toward him. Merula was dead. The gentle spirit had 
left that worn-out frame, and the angels guided it into 
the presence of its Saviour. 



42 EEFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHEELANDS. 



VI. 

THE LNTLUEisCE OF A BOLD SEPAKATISiL 

At the same time that the men whom Angelus Merula 
represented, were endeavoring to effect within the 
Church the reformation for which multitudes had he- 
come intensely desirous, there were others who sought 
to attain that object in the way of a bold separatism 
from it. Known in the ecclesiastical history of Ger- 
many and Switzerland, as well as in that of the Nether- 
lands, by the names of Baptists, Anabaptists and Men- 
nonites, they constituted a phenomenon which, remark- 
able as it was among the departures from the Eomish 
system of faith and polity, and differing in many im- 
portant respects from the Protestantism that was based 
upon the teachings of Luther or Zwingle, still was of the 
kind that it may claim a place among the influences by 
which the settlement of the Eeformed Church, was 
effected. It aided in this, in that with all the Eeformed 
these Baptists refused to acknowledge the binding- 
power, in all matters of religion, of any human enact- 
ments; in that they claimed to follow the Bible alone as 
their authority, though they erred sadly in the inter- 
pretation of it as regards many points of doctrine and 
practice; in that they cheerfully gave up their goods 
and their lives for their faith; in that they set an ex- 
ample of refusing to compromise, however well meant 
the effort thereunto might be, with a church which had 
become exceedingly corrupt; and, in that they took a 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



43 



decided stand in respect to secession from the Church 
of Eome and the formation of a distinct church organi- 
zation. The study of their peculiarities of doctrine, 
polity and discipline, suggests in some particulars, points 
of contact between them and the Gnostics and the Cir- 
cumcelliones of the earliest periods; and in others, be- 
tween them and the Baptists and Quakers of modern 
times. There is considerable obscurity surrounding 
their origin, owing to the fact that the general name of 
Anabaptists was applied to the large numbers who be- 
cause of their piety and godliness were held in great 
esteem by such men as Erasmus, and to other large 
numbers who in the outbursts of their ungovernable 
fanaticism became guilty of the most horrible excesses 
at Munster, Amsterdam and Leyden, simply on the 
ground that these very dissimilar parties both rejected 
infant baptism and forced baptism at their hands upon 
every person who joined their ranks. They were very 
numerous in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 
sixteenth century. In 1534 twelve ship loads sailed to 
meet John Matthys, and afterward John Beukels, at 
Munster. Bouwens, one of their elders, baptized since 
1551, at Etnbden, ten thousand persons. A list of their 
names is still in existence. Their numbers would have 
been still larger in the Netherlands, were it not that many 
shrank from the strictness of the discipline, and, 
secretly feeling more in sympathy with Luther, united 
with the Eeformed Church when it became established. 

As to the origin of the Baptists, or Anabaptists, in 
the Netherlands, Brand says that they began to be 
heard of there in 1527. The branch of the reformers 
which excludes infant baptism, began to be known in 
Switzerland in 1522 by means of Conrad G-rebel and 
Felix Mants, both learned men, who had a dispute with 



44 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Zwingle about baptism. As the result of this dispute 
an edict was issued at Zurich against the Baptists, ac- 
cording to which a fine of a silver mark was imposed 
upon every one who rebaptized a person, or who with- 
held his children from being baptized. Those who per- 
sisted were to be more severely punished. Felix was 
put to death by drowning. "Qui iterum mergit, mer- 
gatur," said Zwingle. The sentence sounds like a 
ghastly joke. 

Ypey and Dermout trace the Baptists of the Nether- 
lands back to the Waldenses who were scattered by per- 
secution in the second half of the twelfth century, and 
of whom many took refuge in that country. In the 
volumes of notes appended to their history, these 
authors say that the Waldenses were most probably an 
elect remnant of the pure evangelical church, who, be- 
fore the time of Oonstantine the Great, were dispersed 
by the emperors, and after many wanderings settled 
down in the valleys of Piedmont. Claiming that even 
Eoman Catholic writers regard this as not impossible, 
they refer to the opinion of Eayner, that the Waldenses 
can be traced back to the times of the Apostles; to that 
of Hosius, that their history commences in the time of 
Augustine; and to that of Schyn (a Baptist writer), that 
they had their beginning in the eighth century. 

This statement, together with the declaration that the 
Baptists in the Netherlands, traced back to the Walden- 
ses, are not to be confounded with the communistic 
fanatics whose horrible excesses have been alluded to, 
and, also, that there are many points of resemblance be- 
tween the views of these Waldenses and their presumed 
descendants, in points of doctrine and discipline, sheds 
some light, perhaps, upon a singular assertion made by 
these historians. This assertion, all the more a singular 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



45 



one from the fact that these historians had previously 
stated that among the Waldenses no mention was made 
of the rejection of infant baptism, but that the Nether- 
lands Baptists did reject it, and that for that reason 
they were confounded with the Anabaptists, is literally 
as follows: 

" We have seen that the Baptists, who in former times 
were called Anabaptists, and later Mennonites, were 
originally Waldenses, who in ecclesiastical history have 
for a long season past received a well-merited homage. 
Hence the Baptists may be regarded as from of old the 
only religious association that has existed from the times 
of the Apostles onward, as a Christian society by whom 
the evangelical system of religious doctrine has been 
kept pure throughout all ages. The inner and the 
outer state of the Baptist association, which has never 
become deformed, is a witness to the truth which the 
Church of Some has combat ted, that the reformation of 
religion, as it was effected during the sixteenth century, 
was a necessity; and it refutes, moreover, the error of 
the Roman Catholics, that their ecclesiastical association 
is the oldest." 

This certainly is strong language, especially the word 
which we italicized, which let him, who can, sub- 
stantiate in view of the presentations which dispassionate 
writers, including those of the Baptish Church, give of 
the doctrines of the Baptist reformers of the fifteenth 
• and sixteenth centuries, even the question of their being 
confounded with the tumultuous Anabaptists being set 
aside. Diest Lorgion quotes a Baptist author in great 
repute among his brethren. We give the substance, 
except in the case referring to baptism where we furnish 
a literal translation. At first, the humble among the 
people were called Baptists. These, uniting with others 



46 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

in the desire for a reformation, either would quietly take 
their places with those who left the Church of Rome, or 
join those who openly resisted its demands. Their aim 
was to restore the original purity of the church in doc- 
trine and in practice. The basis upon which they rested 
was the Word of God. They held that unto this restora- 
tion something more was necessary than a mere correc- 
tion of abuses. Their ideas embraced the erection of a 
new church according to New Testament precepts. 
Under the old covenant, God had erected an earthly 
kingdom. Under the new, He would have a spiritual 
kingdom to take its place. This kingdom was to be 
the Church of Christ, made up of his elect without spot. 
In this they followed the Scripture as their guide. 
" Pursuing this idea, they naturally arrived at the 
fundamental conception of a luminous representation of 
the entire Christendom as an adoration of God in spirit 
and in truth through the appearing of the Son of God 
in the flesh. Continuing in this path, they commenced 
their work by rejecting infant baptism, while they held 
up and practiced the baptism of adults as the only verit- 
able symbol and token of the entrance of a man into 
this kingdom." Out of this grew other ideas. The 
church must remain pure. Hence excision and avoid- 
ance. A civil authority was superfluous. There should 
only be spiritual authority. There should be no 
material weapons. In this kingdom truth must be the 
law. Hence there should be no oaths of any kind, which, 
indeed, the Master positively forbade. The world is not 
yet ready for this kingdom. Hence it is to be all the 
more luminously illustrated within the circle where it 
already exists, and there should be a separation from the 
world in respect to dress and modes of life. In short, 
the citizens of that kingdom were^a practical, not a spec- 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



47 



illative people, who made their doctrine known to men, 
rather by the fruits of it than in the way of an abstract 
presentation of their views of the teachings of Scripture. 

The man who organized these seceders from the 
Church of Rome into an eclesiastical body, by drawing 
together and improving some of the commendable ele- 
ments, and sifting out and rejecting most of those 
which were worthy of condemnation only, was he from 
whom the Mennonites have derived their name. Menno 
Simons was born at Witmarsum, in Eriesland, in 1505. 
When he appeared on the scene of this history, he was 
a Eomish priest at Bolsward, a village near Franeker. 
He was early in sympathy with the better portion of the 
Baptist seceders. The fanatacism and the wild exces- 
ses of the followers of John Matthys and J ohn Beukels 
distressed him, and the tragedy of Oldeklooster, in his 
native province, where a number of men, women, and 
children, let astray by their demented leaders, lost their 
lives, shocked him greatly. The execution of a man 
named Snyder for having had himself re-baptized, was 
the turning-point in his life. He began to study the 
Scripture with a view of ascertaining its teachings on 
the subject of baptism. He concluded that the baptism 
of infants is contrary to their import. In regard to 
Rome's doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper, he also 
began to entertain grave doubts. He gave up his 
priesthood and joined the Baptists. He speaks thus of 
himself at this part of his career: " My heart trembled 
within me. I prayed to God with sighs and tears that 
He would bestow upon me, a sorrowing sinner, the gift 
of his grace; that He would create a clean heart in me; 
that for the sake of the red blood of Christ, He would 
graciously pardon all my impure practices, and that he 
would endow me with wisdom, spirituality, boldness and 



48 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



a manly courage, so that I might proclaim His adorable 
name and holy word, without any mixture of error, and 
make known His truth unto His praise. I commenced 
to preach openly from the pulpit, in the name of the 
Lord, a genuine repentance; to point out to the people 
the narrow way; to rebuke, in a Scriptural manner, sin 
and ungodliness, idolatry and false religion; and to bear 
witness to baptism and the Lord's Supper according to 
the mind of Christ, in so far as I, by the grace of God, 
could understand it. I warned every one against the 
wickedness of the proceedings at Munster. After nine 
months the gracious God granted me His fatherly Spirit, 
help and strength, so that, giving up all reputation I 
had among men, and abandoning all anti-Christian 
horrors, masses, infant baptism, extravagant modes of 
life and everything else of the sort, I cheerfully, though 
in misery and poverty, took my position under the Cross 
of Christ, feared my God, sought the pious, labored with 
the erring, by divine help delivered some out of the 
snares of perdition, and gained over the obdurate, com- 
mending them to the Lord." 

In 1537 he was invited by a number of prominent 
Baptists to assume a pastoral charge. He complied 
reluctantly. He did not approve of long pastorates, and 
therefore went from place to place. Perhaps he was 
also compelled to this course by the attempts that were 
made to get possession of his person. He had some hair- 
breadth escapes from capture, but he succeeded in elud- 
ing his enemies. In 1539 a resident of Harlingen, 
named Eeinders, was executed at Leeuwarden for having 
given him lodging. In 1542 a proclamation was issued 
promising the gift of a hundred golden florins to any 
person who should give him up to the government, and 
stating that every one who harbored him was to be dealt 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



49 



with as a heretic. In the same year he came in contact 
with the celebrated John a Lasco. When the latter was 
in Friesland, endeavoring to unite the different Protes- 
tant parties in a single body, he said to the government 
of Brussels, which desired to expel a number of them, 
"Let us examine first what they are." Permission was 
given. " One man among them all," says D'Aubigne, 
"appeared to him to be sincerely pious, and to set be- 
fore himself a really praiseworthy object." This was 
Menno. Alasco invited him to a religious conference, 
which turned upon the subjects of the ministry, the 
baptism of children, and the incarnation of the Son of 
God. It was chiefly this last point with which he con- 
cerned himself. Menno taught a fantastical doctrine. 
He believed that the birth of Jesus had been only in ap- 
pearance; that he had not received from the Virgin 
Mary his flesh and blood, but had brought them from 
heaven. Menno having brought forward several other 
opinions that were peculiar to himself, a Lasco admitted 
that it was impossible to attach him to the great evangel- 
ical body, but at the same time he did not ask for his 
expulsion. 

Between 1543 and 1546 Menno remained in Cologne. 
After that he traveled through the northern part of 
Germany, until within five years of his death, which 
occurred at Olderloo, a hamlet between Lubeck and 
Hamburg, on January 13, 1561. In his system, which 
the. eloquence of the preacher, and to some extent the 
circumstances of the times recommended, he condemned, 
as Mosheim says, the expectation of a new kingdom of 
Christ to be set up by violence and by the expulsion of 
magistrates; the marvellous restitution of the Church 
by a new and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost; 
the licentiousness of polygamy and divorce; and the 
P 



50 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

presence of the Spirit in the hearts of individuals mani- 
fest by their ability to prophesy, and by their dreams. 
On the other hand, he retained the rejection of infant 
baptism; the coming of a thousand years' reign of 
Christ before the end of the world; the inadmissibility 
of magistrates in the Church ; the prohibition by Christ 
of wars and oaths; and the inutility and mischief of 
human learning. 

He was a remarkable man. He and his followers 
stood by themselves in the great movements of the times. 
Still he had his part, though a peculiar one, in prepar- 
ing the Netherlands for the establishment there of the 
Reformed Church. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



51 



VII 

THE ADOPTION" OE A CONFESSION" OE EAITH. 

The history of the formative period of the Eeformed 
Church in the Netherlands is so closely interwoven with 
that of the formative period of the Dutch republic, that, 
in reviewing the former, it is not possible altogether to 
ignore the latter. In this case politics and religion so 
thoroughly blend that they cannot be kept apart. An 
account of the one is largely that of the other. The 
details of the consolidation of the Eeformed into a well- 
organized church may therefore readily be seen to 
cluster around a double pair of events, which are, as to 
the first pair, the centres in which were gathered up 
positive results looking toward a special direction; and 
as to the second, those from which went out influences 
tending, though in the way of a negative process, to- 
ward the same direction — the unifying of the brethren 
of the same faith into a strong and efficient ecclesiastical 
organization. The confederation of the nobles and the 
adoption of a symbol of faith embracing a confession and 
a catechism, effected, in the manner peculiar to them, 
the same result which was brought about by the com- 
mission of the Duke of Alva and the scattering of the 
Protestants, operating in a manner appropriate to these 
instrumentalities. By the will of God these events 
severally contributed toward the establishment of the 
Eeformed Church. 



52 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



In the year 1561 — when, as we have seen, Menno, the 
last of the five representative men of whom mention has 
been made in connection with the preparation for the 
Reformed Church, died — Philip II. was the mighty ruler 
over a large part of Europe.. His representative in the 
Netherlands was his sister Margaret, widow of the Duke 
of Parma. The freedom of her course in the exercise of 
her authority was greatly impeded by the suspicion and 
the opposition of the nobles, who, though strict in their 
allegiance to their royal master, could not brook the ex- 
ercise by him of a power which, in respect to certain 
inalienable rights and privileges belonging to the prov- 
inces, was a gross usurpation. These men, who num- 
bered among them such names as Croy, Mansfeldt, 
Ligne, Megen, Egmont and Montmorency, and at the 
head of whom was Prince William of Orange, prominent 
as regards almost everything that pertains to human 
greatness — rank, wealth, character, ability, influence — 
were generally favorably disposed toward the Reformed, 
some from pity, others from policy, and a few from 
conviction. 

The Reformation had been gaining ground through 
the influences which we have already considered. To 
these influences must be added those inherent in increas- 
ing commercial connections; in the fear, entertained by 
Roman Catholics and Protestants alike, of the introduc- 
tion of the dreaded inquisition, for which the addition 
of fourteen bishoprics to the four already existing was 
furnishing greater facilities; and in the relations of 
amity that were cultivated between the Protestants of 
the Netherlands and those of Germany, France, England 
and Switzerland. The tenets of the leaders of Protes- 
tant theology in these countries had each its adherents 
in the Netherlands. There were Lutherans, at first 



NORMATIVE PERIOD. 



53 



largely in the majority; Melancthonians, who held a 
slightly varying shade of Lutheranism; Zwinglians, Cal- 
vinists, and Anabaptists — of whom there was also a sep- 
arate branch called Karelstadians — who were mystics and 
discarded all interpretation of the Scripture upon any- 
thing like scientific principles. 

These branches of Protestantism, though there were 
points of contact among them in reference to certain 
fundamental doctrines accepted by all, yet were sepa- 
rated from each other as to important doctrines and 
church government. The Lutherans, Zwinglians and 
Calvinists were agreed upon the subject of baptism, in 
which the Baptists differed from them. With the Lu- 
therans, who in the Lord's Supper held to consubstan- 
tiation — the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus — the 
Zwinglians and the Baptists could not agree; for they 
believed that in the Holy Eucharist, or Supper of thanks- 
giving, the body of Christ is present, not in substance 
but to the eye of faith, the eye of him who thanks -the 
Lord for the benefits conferred on us in Christ his Son 
and acknowledges that he assumed a real body, truly suf- 
fered in it and washed away our sins in his own blood. 
Calvin, who greatly desired to unite all the Protestants, 
took a middle line between these two views, and taught 
that there is a real presence of Christ in the Supper, but 
altogether a spiritual one; and that the bread and the 
wine being symbols of Christ's body and blood, the soul 
by its mouth (faith) feeds upon that body and blood, 
as, by the mouth of the body, the body feeds upon the 
material bread and wine. Calvin also taught the doc- 
trine of election by sovereign grace, and its correlative, 
a limited atonement. Then, there were differences also 
in the opinions held by these several branches of Pro- 
testantism in regard to church polity. Luther wished 



54 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

to restore in the Church the democracy of the earliest 
ages and the disposition of the hierarchy according to a 
system of an appropriate subordinacy. Zwingle desired 
to see at the head of the Church a permanent superin- 
tendent, limited in power, and with all his subordinate 
ecclesiastics dependent upon the altogether unlimited 
civil power. In distinction from these opinions, and 
much more in accord with the germinal conception of 
a republic in the State, the development of which the 
history of the times was indicating to the ej^es of the 
statesman, Calvin held that the Church is a wholly in- 
dependent body, having power inherent in itself, and to 
be governed only by the ministers together with the 
elders convened in ecclesiastical assembly, the State 
having nothing more to do with the Church than to 
protect it and to ensure to it the full use of all its 
rights. According to him the ministers of the Church 
were all upon a par as regards ecclesiastical rank. 

Though these several branches of Protestantism affil- 
iated in the spirit of brotherly love, yet, from this variety 
of opinion in regard to doctrine and polity, it is evident 
there could be no such permanence of cohesion among 
individuals as is essentially necessary to the formation 
of a Church. But for this God was preparing the way. 
The Calvinists constantly increased in numbers and 
drew to themselves not a few Lutherans and nearly all 
of those who held the Zwinglian tenets, with whom many 
of the Baptists, because of similarity of opinion in re- 
gard to the Lord's Supper, had already become associated. 
This attachment of the people of the Netherlands to 
Calvinism is in great part to be accounted for by the 
influence exerted by the Walloon congregations, and also, 
particularly, by the successful labors of four eminent 
preachers. The spread of the faith represented by the 



Formative period. 



Walloon churches, was to some extent owing to territor- 
ial circumstances, since the Southern Netherlands were 
related by vicinity of situation and by a common lan- 
guage to France where these churches had their origin. 
The Northern Netherlands, on the other hand, though 
using an entirely different language, were in sympathy 
with Brabant and Flanders which they adjoined. In 
1561 there were many of these Calvinistic Walloon 
churches in the Netherlands. They were known among 
themselves by distinctive names, in imitation of the socie- 
ties of the rhetoricians which have been mentioned. Thus 
at Ryssel was the congregation of the Rose-tree; at 
Armentieres, that of the Rosebud; at Antwerp, that 
of the Vineyard; at Ghent, that of the Sword; at Ou- 
denaarde, that of the Lily; at Doornik, that of the 
Palm-tree; at Bergen, that of the Olive-tree; at Douay, 
that of the wheat-sheaf; at Arras, that of the Violet. 
These scattered Walloon congregations held irregular 
conventions, by some called synods, in the utmost secrecy. 
On April 26, 1563, there was such a meeting in the 
Southern Netherlands, and on July 24 and October 15, 
at Antwerp. Of the proceedings nothing is known ex- 
cept that, at the meeting in October, a resolution was 
adopted to the effect that subsequently records should 
be kept and copies furnished to the churches. After 
that, synods (so called) were held in 1564, 1565, 1566. 
The last one, as will be seen, was the most important of 
them all. 

The men, who by their zeal and eloquence were in- ^/ 
strumental in gathering the majority of the Protestants 
in the Netherlands under the banner of Calvinism, were 
Guido de Bres, pastor first at Ryssel and then at Valen- 
ciennes, who was martyred in 1567; Petrus Dathenus, 
who in 1555 was pastor in Frankfort, and afterward did \ 



56 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

a great service in translating the Heidelberg Catechism 
into the Dutch language; Henry Modet, one of the first 
who, in 1566, was bold enough to engage in field-preach- 
ing; and finally, Francois du Jon, or, as he is also called, 
Franciscus Junius, who was a professor of theology in 
the University of Leyden when he died in 1602; and who, 
when a very young pastor at Antwerp, was so ardent and 
fearless, that he preached once when the reflection of 
the flames in which the body of a sufferer for the faith 
was consuming gleamed upon the walls of the room 
where his little flock was convened. 

This incident in the life of Junius, as well as the fact 
that these scattered churches were compelled to use 
countersigns, or watchwords, sufficiently intimate that 
the growth of the cause of the Eeformation in the Neth- 
erlands was in the midst of the fires of persecution. 

Such, then, was the aspect of things in politics and 
religion when, on October 2, 1565, a few nobles, about 
twenty in number, met in the city of Brussels. Junius, 
who had been sent for from Antwerp, led them in prayer. 
After this devotion they consulted together in regard 
to the best measures to be adopted for the protection of 
the land against the Spanish yoke. Their deliberations 
resulted in the formation of a covenant agreement, 
according to which all who signed it pledged themselves 
to resist, in every way consistent with the honor of God 
and allegiance to the king, the introduction of the 
inquisition into the land. This was the origin of the 
famous compromise, though some historians attribute 
the projection of it to the celebrated Philip of Marnix. 
On the 5th of April of the next year (1566), a party of 
between three hundred and four hundred nobles, under 
the leadership of Hendrik of Brederoode and Louis of 
Nassau, brother of Prince William, rode into Brussels 



FOEMATIVE PERIOD. 



and presented to the regent Margaret a petition, in 
which the removal of the pressure, brought to bear by 
the government upon the cause of Protestantism, was re- 
quested. It was on this occasion that the name Geux 
(beggars), applied to these petitioning nobles, began to 
take so important a place in Dutch history. The reply 
to this petition, as a concession to the Protestants, was 
of so equivocal a nature that the people changed the 
word moderation into that of murderation, as far more 
correctly expressing its spirit and intent. 

By this result the Protestant cause was really saved. 
If the project of the nobles had been carried out and a 
compromise been effected, the Reformation in the Neth- 
erlands would not in the end have triumphed, and the 
Dutch republic would have been impossible. Still, the 
extent to which the nobles went in showing their sym- 
pathy, which they failed not to act upon whenever the 
opportunity was afforded, had the effect of inspiring the 
Reformed with courage. 

With cheerful spirit, therefore, the pastors of some of 
the Walloon and the Netherland churches assembled in 
Antwerp, in May, 1566, especially as they had a num- 
ber of the nobles in company with them, even though 
the members of that convention were compelled to ob- 
serve such secresy that they gave admission only to those 
who had the countersign, La Vigne (the Vineyard). The 
object of this meeting was to lay the foundation of a 
regular church association, the members of which might 
be bound together most closely in the bonds of a general 
concord. The adoption was contemplated, therefore, of 
a symbol of faith, to the end that there might be agree- 
ment in the instructions given by ministers and in the 
confession made by laymen, "so that the good Christians 
of the Reformed Church should not be driven about by 



58 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



every wind of doctrine, as had hitherto been too much 
the case." 

This unification of believers into a church could best 
be effected, it was thought, by the adoption of the con- 
fession of faith which had been composed by Guido de 
Bres in 1559. This was not the first symbol of faith as 
held by Calvinists, that had been constructed, for there 
was one of a prior date (1550), from the pen of Alasco. 
But the former (that of De Bres) superseded the latter. 
It was called " A confession of faith made by common 
consent by the faithful who are everywhere scattered 
throughout the Netherlands;" and, finally revised by 
the Synod of Dordrecht, which met in 1618-1619, is the 
same which in 37 articles is incorporated in the volume 
of the psalms and hymns of the Reformed Protestant 
Dutch Church. After De Bres had composed that con- 
fession, he sent it first of all to different ministers at 
home and in foreign lands, for their opinion; and par- 
ticularly to Adrian Saravia, a pastor at Leyden, and 
seven years later a prominent member of the Antwerp 
Synod. Saravia sent it to Calvin, who praised it, but 
advised that it should be set aside upon the ground that 
a confession had that year been adopted at a Synod held 
in Paris. De Bres was content to follow this counsel, 
though his design, in composing his confession, had 
been to free the Reformed in the Netherlands from the 
imputation that they were of the seditious Anabaptists 
who some years previously had filled Europe with wrath 
and horror. In 1561 the learned Godfried Van Wingen 
persuaded him to transmit it to the theologians atEmb- 
den, who, though they were of the Zwinglian order, ap- 
proved it. It was then submitted a second time to min- 
isters at home and abroad, with the result that in the 
main it was approved, though suggestions were made 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



59 



in reference to the addition and subtraction of certain 
phrases. In 1562 it was published in French for the 
churches located in the Southern Netherlands, and in 
Dutch for those situated in the northern provinces. A 
copy of it in the latter language, accompanied by a letter, 
was sent to King Philip II. of Spain. Similarly, the 
French Eeformed Church had sent to Francis II., the 
King of France, a copy of its confession. It was 
handed to him on Aug. 21, 1560, at a great assembly 
held at Fontainebleau, by the admiral Chatillon, with 
the request in the name of the Reformed in France, 
"that his Majesty would grant them liberty to possess 
temples, or other suitable places in which publicly to 
pray to God, to preach and hear His word, to administer 
His sacraments, and there to give evidence of their Faith; 
also, that they might be relieved from the imputation of 
crimes and slanders which were falsely attributed to 
them." The address, which the Reformed of the Neth- 
erlands sent to Philip with their confession, is truly a re- 
markable document. It is- apologetic of the truth for 
which the people were sacrificing their goods and their 
lives, and it is an appeal to the best feelings of the mon- 
arch. It is respectful in its tone, yet firm in the utter- 
ance of the convictions of its authors. It recognizes the 
authority of the earthly ruler, but, that authority sub- 
ordinate to that of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, 
the great Head of the Church. It is most touching in 
its allusions to the sufferings which the inhabitants of 
the Netherlands were enduring for conscience's sake. 
It opens thus: 

"The believers who are in the Netherlands, who de- 
sire to conform their lives to the true Reformation of 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the invincible 
King Philip, their Sovereign Lord. 



60 KEFOKMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

"If we were permitted, 0 most gracious Lord, to 
present ourselves before your Majesty, to clear ourselves 
of the difficulties wherewith we are burdened, and to 
show the righteousness of our cause, we would not em- 
ploy, for the purpose of making known to you the bit- 
ter sighs of your people, the obscure method of a dumb 
request, or a written confession. But after our enemies 
have filled your ears with so many false complaints and 
reports, so that not only are we prevented from appear- 
ing in your presence, but we are driven out of your ter- 
ritories and are murdered and burned in whatsoever 
place we may be found, grant us, Most Gracious Lord, 
in the name of God, that which no man can refuse even 
to a beast, that our doleful cries may be allowed to come 
to your ears from afar; to the end that, your Majesty 
having heard us, then, if, on the one hand, you judge 
us guilty, the fires in your kingdom may be increased 
and the tortures and the torments multiplied; but, on 
the contrary, if our innocence become clear to you, you 
be to your kingdom for a support and a refuge against 
the violence of our enemies." 

At the same time that the Confession and the letter 
were transmitted to Philip, "an exhortation and dis- 
course" was addressed to the authorities in the Nether 
lands, namely, in Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, 
Henegow, Artois, and their surrounding districts. 

In 1566, at the Synod of Antwerp, the Confession was 
thoroughly revised; certain changes were made in refer- 
ence to words and phrases, and the 16th article, relating 
to election, was shortened; transcribed by Junius, who 
also was a member of that synod; signed by the nobles 
present, though whether by the ministers also is not 
certain; adopted, together with the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism, as a form of accord in the faith, and sent to, 
Geneva where it was printed by John Crispyn. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



61 



In the same year, on April 1, some persons deputed 
by the Believers in the Netherlands, delivered a copy of 
the Confession to the Emperor Maximilian II. at the 
diet assembled at Regensburg; together with a letter to 
his imperial majesty, addressed to him "in the name of 
all and everyone who desire with all their hearts to be- 
lieve and conduct themselves according to the gospel of 
the Son of God," and also, " a supplication, or argu- 
ment of the churches of Christ which are scattered here 
and there, throughout the Netherlands, and groan under 
the yoke of antichrist, addressed to the Great and Most 
Mighty Lord Maximilian, by the grace of God Emperor 
of Borne, etc." The edition of the Confession, dated 
1566, is numbered in the Catalogns Udroriim prohibi- 
toru?n, of 1569. 

This, in brief, is the history of the Belgic Confession. 
It was intended by the Synod of Antwerp as a symbol 
of accord in the faith, not as an authoritative rule of 
faith. Their only rule of faith was the "Word of God, 
and they would have nothing in any way of human ori- 
gin as a bond upon the conscience. A body had now 
been given to the abstraction of the Reformed Church, 
as distinguished from the Lutheran Church which stood 
upon the Augsburg Confession. From this time on 
the Calvinists of the Netherlands had a name as well as 
a standard of faith. That standard had been planted 
upon the Divine Word, but it was such a one that it 
it was the rallying-point of all who accepted the doc- 
trines and the ideas of church government, as gathered 
from the Word of God, according to the interpretations 
of it by J ohn Calvin, one of the greatest men of his age, 
and indeed of all times. 
6 



62 EEFOEMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VIII. 

CONSOLIDATION BY MEANS OF DISPEESION. 

The paradoxical character of the heading of this chap- 
ter is in appearance only. History has shown more than 
once that when the several members of a body polit- 
ical or ecclesiastical are forced apart, this very forcing 
process has the effect of quickening the tendency to co- 
hesion, through the superior power of the moral idea 
over outward adverse circumstances. To ignore this is 
to make a great mistake. King Philip II. made that 
mistake, and the result of it was that he strengthened 
the Keformed Church instead of destroying it as he 
had intended. The persecutions, by which the pure 
Gospel really the more prospered and increased, had al- 
ready been going on for years. But during the reign of 
Philip they were carried to the utmost extreme of cruel- 
ty and brought on that unequal conflict between the 
Netherlands and the whole Spanish empire which, after 
eighty years' duration, ended in the full establishment of 
the Dutch Kepublic and the Protestant Dutch Eeformed 
Church. 

In different years since the proclamation of Charles 
V. at the Diet of Worms (1521), directed against Luther- 
anism, edicts of an increasingly severe nature had been 
issued for the suppression of the reformation heresies. 
These edicts were of the years 1526, 1529, 1540 and (the 
most rigorous of all) 1550. Five years after the last, the 
Emperor, an exhausted though not an old man, laid 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



63 



aside the sceptre at Brussels, and placed it in the hands 
of his son Philip. In 1549 Philip had bound himself 
with an oath to pay due regard to the rights and 
privileges of the Netherlands. But how strictly he ad- 
hered to it his career sufficiently shows. No sooner had 
he been firmly seated upon the throne than he con- 
firmed all the edicts issued against the Eeformed 
during his father's reign, and commanded their execu- 
tion upon the persons of the heretics, all privileges, ordi- 
nances, statutes, usages and customs to the contrary not- 
withstanding. In 1565 the Count of Egmont was sent 
to Spain upon a mission of intercession, to secure from 
the king, if possible, a larger degree of religious liberty 
for the people of the Netherlands. The kindness of his 
reception augured a favorable result. The reality, how- 
ever, was the opposite. A council of theologians having 
been convened, the king asked whether there was a ne- 
cessity of granting the request of the Netherlands. The 
answer was, that the condition in which the provinces 
then were would render a concession pardonable. " I 
did not wish to be informed/' said Philip, " whether I 
might grant the liberty asked for, but whether I must 
grant it." When this was answered in the negative, the 
monarch fell on his knees before a crucifix and ex- 
claimed: "Almighty God, I beseech thee that I may 
be preserved from ever ruling over a people that deny 
thee." Then turning towards Egmont, he said that he 
would rather lose a hundred thousand lives than allow a 
change in religion. 

Two events, nearly simultaneous in their occurrence, 
filled the mind of the king with indignation and wrath, 
and stimulated his zeal for the maintenance of the 
Eoman Catholic religion throughout the Netherlands. 
These were the open-air worship of the Reformers, and 



64 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the iconoclastic riots of the mob. On July 14, 1566, 
the first field-service was held in the neighborhood of 
Hoorn; and afterwards, others in different parts of the 
States. Peter Gabriel preached at Overveen, a charming 
Tillage near Haarlem. Those who proposed to partici- 
pate in the worship had been on the ground all the pre- 
vious night. At dawn they set up two poles and nailed 
fast to them a third, horizontally. This structure was 
intended as a support for the exhausted preacher to lean 
against. He came. He was a man of small stature and 
apparently of a weak physical constitution. With his 
bare head exposed to the summer sun he preached for 
four hours. His doctrine and appeals drew tears from 
the eyes of his audience. His text was Eph. ii. 8-10. 
Four days after, religious services of a similar nature 
were attempted in the neighborhood of Amsterdam. 

On August 14, 1566, the image-breaking began in 
Antwerp, and thence spread over nearly the entire 
Netherlands, the evil being prevented in some cases only 
by the vigilance, the prudence, and the wisdom of the 
local magistrates. Ungovernable mobs, armed with all 
sorts of destructive implements, broke into the churches 
and made a dreadful havoc of their contents. In 
Flanders alone, nearly four hundred buildings were 
gutted. 

The effect in Spain of the intelligence of these things 
was what might have been expected. It was proposed 
at first that the king should go to the Netherlands in per- 
son. Instead, however, he sent the Duke of Alva, a 
man whose ravages among the people and property of 
the provinces, were like those of a tiger among a flock of 
sheep. On August 28, 1567, he entered Brussels, hav- 
ing been commissioned by Philip to take the place of 
the regent Margaret. As Alva came into the country, 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



65 



the Prince of Orange, intent upon measures of defence 
and protection for his people, went out of it. During 
the six years that Alva remained (he retired on Decem- 
ber 18, 1573), the Eeformed Church passed through a 
very dark period of its history. Immediately upon his 
assumption of the government, he convened what he 
called a council of disturbances, but what is aptly styled 
a council of blood. The whole people were condemned 
to death. The churches, it was said, had been desecrated 
by the mob; the mob had been urged on by the heretics; 
the heretics had been protected by the nobles; the 
nobles had been sustained by the gentry who were their 
relatives. All were guilty, and all were subject to the 
death penalty. Thenceforth there was no end to the 
hanging, strangling, burying alive, burning at the stake, 
and drowning. The secret torture-chambers resounded 
with the groans of the hapless victims. The fruit on the 
trees by the roadside was decaying human corpses. 
The gibbet, with its horrible freight, cast a shadow over 
many a flowery path. The prisons were filled to over- 
flowing. Families were scattered like dust before the 
wind. No lives or property were safe. A heavy gloom 
of death lay spread over the land, and a great cry of dis- 
tress ascended to heaven. Preservation of life, of course, 
was sought in flight. The last city where the Reformed 
had anything like a refuge within their own land, was 
Groningen. That, too, was taken from them. But this 
scattering was unto the strengthening. "We shall notice 
the three cities of refuge where afflicted exiles found a 
home. 

First, there was London. Already in 1 546 a few Dutch 
merchants, fleeing from the execution of the edict of 
1540, and also in the interest of commerce, located 
in the English capital. m Here they formed themselves 



66 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



into a congregation, which, an interruption during the 
reign of Queen Mary excepted, had a career of great 
prosperity. Already in the beginning of its history it 
had a membership of four thousand. In 1550, when 
Edward VI. was on the throne, the congregation received 
from the government, for its use, a building that had 
belonged formerly to a brotherhood of the Augustinian 
order. The church had the ministry of four pastors, 
under the general superintendence of the famous John 
a Lasco. When King Edward died in 1553 and was 
succeeded by Mary, zealous for the Eoman Catholic 
faith, the church was scattered and a Lasco went to 
Denmark. Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 
1558, the congregation was once more restored. During 
the terrible persecutions in the Netherlands under Alva, 
it received large increase from the refugees who fled to 
England. The church is still in a flourishing condition. 

In East Eriesland is the city of Embden. It is called 
the alma mater of the Reformed Church. When the 
field-preaching commenced in the Netherlands, Laurens 
Jacobs Eeaal sent to this place for Reformed pastors to 
come and help the struggling believers in the Nether- 
lands. The request was complied with, and when the 
calamities during Alva's reign pressed, many of the fugi- 
tives found here a very hospitable welcome. In com- 
memoration of this kind reception a large window was 
placed in the south end of the hospital chapel, west of 
the pulpit. When in 1656 it began to show the corrosive 
influence of time, it was renewed by four Frisians at 
their own expense. 

The third place alluded to is Wezel, in Kleefsland, on 
the lower Rhine. Since 1515, many fugitives had come 
to dwell there. In 1553, when Mary, daughter of Henry 
VIII., became Queen, and the spirit of persecution 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



67 



against the Protestants raged in England, the number 
of refugees in Wezel was greatly enlarged. In 1567, 
when the council of blood was in session, the number 
became larger than at any time previously. 

On February 24, 1578, these refugees, about to return 
to their country, made a public acknowledgment of the 
great hospitality which they had received from the city. 
An oration was delivered in their name, addressed to the 
members of the town council, in which mention was 
made of the kindness with which already for thirty years 
past the city had taken the strangers from the Nether- 
lands to itself, as to an asylum. Its houses had been 
opened to them; for their protection the citizens had 
exposed themselves to disfavor and even to danger; their 
infirmities had been borne with patience; they had been 
aided with counsel and substance; they had been de- 
livered from discomforts; the citizens had been to them 
as father and mother, relatives and friends. "Your 
city," said the orator, "has truly been to us a father- 
land, because we were permitted with you to live and 
die, and with you to worship God in spirit and in 
truth." 

The oration was followed by the presentation of "a 
token to posterity of the benefits that were received; not 
by way of compensation, but as a sign or pledge of last- 
ing gratitude." 

The token consisted of two massive silver vessels, the 
inner and outer surfaces of which were richly gilded, 
and the latter most artistically engraven. Each cup 
has a heavy silver cover, around the edge of which is a 
broad, flat band of the same metal. On the centre of 
each cover stands the silver image (not gilded) of a man 
arrayed in the garb of a pilgrim. The construction of 
these figures displays great art, even in the details of 



68 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the features of the countenances and of the lines of the 
drapery. Each of the pilgrims holds in one hand the 
pilgrim's staff, and, with the other, rests upon a silver 
shield. In the case of one vessel the inscription on the 
shield, in Latin, is: " I was a stranger and ye took me 
in" On the band around the cover is the following 
sentence, in Latin: 

" The Netherlander, having been driven from their 
fatherland for their confession of the pure gospel, have 
presented to the worthy council and to the citizens of 
Wezel, in the eleventh year of their exile and the fifteen 
hundred and seventy-eighth of the birth of Christ, this 
token of the gratitude of their hearts for the hospitalities 
received by them/' 

On the outer surface of this vessel are engraved scenes 
from Bible history: Abraham bestowing hospitality, 
Gen. xviii. ; the widow of Sarepta, 1 Kings xvii. ; Zac- 
cheus, Luke xix. 

In the case of the second vessel the inscription on the 
shield is: "Preserve, 0 Lord, famed Wezel, the refuge 
of thy church" The scenes from Bible history are: 
Lot bestowing hospitality in Sodom, Gen. xix; the 
widow of Shunem entertaining Elisha, 2 Kings iv. ; and 
Lydia showing kindness to Paul, Acts xvi. 

These costly and curious cups, doubly precious for the 
associations connected with them, are still in the posses- 
sion of the city which so nobly earned them, and to 
which they were so graciously presented. 



FOKMATIVE PERIOD. 



69 



IX. 

THE FORMATION OF A LITURGY. 

As a factor in the spiritual development of the people, 
the indispensableness of a liturgy was so early recognized 
that its adoption was coincident with the founding of 
the Reformed Church. 

As three streams often unite to form a noble river 
whose current flows on majestically toward the sea, so 
there were three liturgies which contributed to form the 
regulator of divine service which, through the centuries 
since its adoption and with many changes, has come 
down to us. These three liturgies are those of Geneva, 
London, and the Palatinate. 

In the year 1566 the famous pastor, Petrus Dathenus, 
published a volume which had a preface addressed to 
"all the churches and servants of Jesus Christ who sit 
wailing under the tyranny of Anti-christ." It contained 
his versification of the Psalms, the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism, which he had translated from the German into the 
Dutch for the benefit of the Reformed Church of the 
Palatinate, and the new JSTetherland liturgy which he 
had translated from the same language for the use of the 
Reformed Church of Frankenthal. The German origin 
of the liturgy may readily be inferred from the fact that 
in the "prayer after sermon" the words occur, "espe- 
cially we pray for the Gracious Elector, Duke Frederick, 
Count Palatine; also for the elector's gracious spouse; 
also for the young gentleman, his son." Its adoption as 
a form of worship of the Church in the Netherlands, as 
also its formation at a date previous to the year 1581, 



70 KEF OEM ED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



when the authority of Philip was abjured, appears from 
the phrase: "Also we pray particularly for His Royal 
Majesty of Spain." Its continued use is shown from this 
fact, that for nearly half a century after the assertion by 
the States of their independence from the yoke of Spain, 
there appeared side by side with the last-mentioned 
prayer, and carelessly enough, the petition: "Also we 
pray especially for the noble and wise Lords, the States 
General of these United Netherlands." Two years after 
the publication of this volume of Dathenus, the liturgy 
was incorporated, in 1568, with the Xew Testament, 
translated into Dutch by John Uitenhoye, and annotated 
by A. Marloratus. 

In what respects that liturgy differed from that which 
the Reformed Church now has, may be ascertained by 
a view of its contents. These were as follows: Form for 
Infant Baptism; A Short Examination into the faith of 
those who desire to join the church; Form of administra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper; Form for the Confirmation of 
Marriage; Prayer before Sermon on Sunday; Prayer after 
Sermon on Sunday; Prayer before Catechetical Instruc- 
tion; Prayer and Confession of Sin before Sermon on 
Week-days; Prayer after such Sermon; Prayer before 
Eating; Two prayers for the Sick and the Tempted; 
Prayer at the Burial of the Dead. There were yet no 
traces of the forms to be used in the Baptism of Adults; 
in the Ordination and Installation of Ministers, Elders 
and Deacons; in prayers before and after Meetings of 
Consistory; in the Excommunication of the Delinquent, 
and the Re-admission of the Penitent; in Giving of 
Thanks after Eating; and Instructing the Sick for their 
better preparation for dying. The adding of these forms, 
as well as the dropping of others, are among the changes 
through which the liturgy passed down to the present. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



71 



The sources of the new Netherland liturgy of 1566, 
were twofold. In the first place, it was derived from 
the liturgy which John a-Lasco had composed for the 
use of the Church of London. In its preparation he 
was much indebted to an older one which came from 
the pen of Yallerandus Polanus, of the Walloon Church 
of Strasburg, about the year 1549. By him it was 
brought oyer to London, when his congregation fleeing 
from the execution of the edicts of Charles V., sought 
a refuge there. It was published in 1551. Alasco's 
Liturgy, composed in 1550, in the Latin language, was 
published at Frankfort in 1555. It bore the imposing 
title, " Forma ac ratio tota ecclesiastici ministerii in 
peregrinorum, potissimnm vero germanorum ecclesia, 
instituta Lonclini in Anglia" In the previous year it 
had been translated into Dutch, by John Uitenhove, 
who was an elder of the church in London. Soon after, 
an abridgment of it was made by Martin Micron, one of 
the four ministers of the Church in London, under the 
superintendence of a-Lasco. It was printed " out. of 
London" (presumably Embden) by Cornelis Volckwin- 
ner, and was called "The Christian Ordinances of the 
Netherland Church of Christ, which had been estab- 
lished in London by the Christian Prince, King Edward 
VI., faithfully and most diligently compiled, by consent 
of the ministers and elders, for the comfort and use of 
all believers." The " Christian Ordinances," indeed, 
contributed the most toward the formation of the new 
Netherlands Liturgy, adopted in 1566. 

The second source of that liturgy was the liturgy of 
the Palatinate, which itself owed much, not only to the 
liturgy of London, but also to the Calvinistic liturgy of 
Geneva; so that, in respect to the latter fact, the state- 
ment above made, that the confluence of three streams 



72 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

produced this grand river of our present liturgy, is sub- 
stantiated. Who the authors were, of this liturgy of 
the Palatinate, is not positively known. Its compo- 
sition is of the same date with that of the Heidelberg 
Catechism. It owes its existence therefore, probably, 
to the pen of Ursinus. But that he was aided in its 
construction by others, is evident from the fact that 
in the preface, written by the Elector for the edition 
of November 15, 1563, several authors are spoken of, 
though unfortunately not by name. 

As it is with the system of doctrine upon which the 
Reformed Church rests, so it is with the liturgy by which 
its several congregations are unified in the externals of 
worship; each is the result of progress, but in the latter 
case, of development as much by subtraction as by 
addition. 

That revision became a necessity as the centuries 
elapsed, may readily be conceded upon the ground that 
the new Netherland liturgy, adopted at the founding 
of the Church in 1566, had its birth when that Church 
had yet before it an eventful history, both in political 
surroundings and ecclesiastical development. Import- 
ant changes in civil government until 1795, when church 
and state were separated; decisions of consecutive sy- 
nods; the new translation of the Bible under the super- 
vision of the States General; and the carelessness of 
printers, occasioned a demand for corrections: other- 
wise these calls for them might have been ascribed to 
fickleness. An example of carelessness is the fact that, 
after the authority of King Philip had been abjured by 
the States in 1581, the prayer for "his Majesty of Spain 
as the sovereign ruler of these countries" continued to 
be read even till the year 1600. 

In 1591 the celebrated Philip of Marnix issued his 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



73 



versification of the Psalms. Incorporated with it was 
the liturgy, — the results of the Acts of the Synods of 
Wezel (1568), Embden (1571), Dordrecht (1574, 1578), 
Middelburg (1581) and the Hague (1586). From that 
liturgy the prayer to be used at funerals had fallen 
away, — according to an act of the Synod of Middel- 
burg; but, added to the liturgy of 1566, were the forms 
of excommunication, re-admission, ordaining ministers, 
ordaining elders and deacons, and consoling the sick. 
Besides these there had been added certain comforting 
texts, selected from the Old and New Testaments; a 
second prayer after sermon on Sunday; a prayer before 
day-school instruction; and a watch-prayer; but these 
three prayers were dropped in 1611. 

Just here we may appropriately notice the discus- 
sions connected with the second question in the form 
for infant baptism. In 1574 the Provincial Synod of 
Dordrecht resolved, that there should be propounded to 
parents and witnesses the question containing the words 
"this doctrine which is here taught/' In 1581 the 
Synod of Middelburg decided that this phrase might be 
used or omitted, at the pleasure of the officiating minis- 
ter, — the motive being to bridge over the gulf in the 
Church between the Zwinglians and Calvinists. It is 
well to note, that already at an early period the magis- 
trates of Groningen forbade the three questions in the 
form of infant baptism to be addressed to the parents or 
witnesses; which prohibition remained in force there 
as late as February 16, 1804. 

The authors of the form for excommunication, 
adopted in 1581, and for re-admission, adopted in 1586, 
are not known. The same obscurity rests upon the 
authorship of the form for ordination. For this cere- 
mony the Synod of Wezel (1568) had proposed a few 
7 



74 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

questions and prescribed the laying on of hands, — the 
same form for the ordination of ministers and of elders. 
The ceremonial received the seal of synodical approval; 
from it two liturgies were produced, and cited as well 
known by the Synod of the Hague (1586). Three sol- 
emn questions were retained. They were preceded by 
an elaborate statement of the nature of the ministerial 
and the presbyterial offices. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



75 



X. 

THE SYNOD OF WEZEL. 

In the year .15G8, when Alva's council of blood was 
" breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the 
disciples of the Lord/' the Eeformed Churches, more 
closely than ever united in spirit, but driven about and 
dispersed, took the touching name which contains in 
itself a volume of suffering and distressful history: 
" The Netherlands churches which sit under the Cross, 
and are scattered within and without the Netherlands." 
But troubled as these churches were, they still were 
hopeful and confidently looked forward to the time 
when, through the grace of God, they should come to 
the free exercise of their religion. In anticipation of 
this their pastors and elders saw the necessity of organ- 
izing the several parts into a harmonious whole, so that 
the different congregations might constitute in the 
aggregate a denomination, having its distinctive doc- 
trinal tenets and polity, and thus be entitled to a place 
in the army of the Lord as one of its grand divisions. 
Connected with this design and forming integral parts 
of it, were numerous questions pertaining to discipline, 
customs and usages, ritual of worship, relations to the 
State and to sister Protestant churches, and other 
kindred matters. These were discussed and disposed of 
in the several synods that were held previous to the cele- 
brated convention of 1618-1619, which is known as the 
Synod of Dort. 

These preceding synods may be divided into two 



76 REFORMED CHTTRCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

kinds, with reference to locality and constitutional 
character. That is to say, two of them were held in the 
countries of exile, and the others at home; some of 
them were National or General, and the others Provin- 
cial or Particular Synods. The synods in exile were 
those of Wezel (1568),and Embden (1571), both National. 
Those held at home were the Provincial Synod of Dor- 
drecht (1574), the National Synod of Dordrecht (1578), 
and the National Synod of Middleburg (1581). At 
these several meetings the great work of organization 
was completed. It was decided that the pastors, who 
were to preside over the churches, should be pious and 
learned men and experienced in the Scriptures; that for 
facility of mutual consultation upon matters relating to 
doctrine, ritual and discipline, there should be frequent 
meetings of representatives from contiguous churches; 
that schools should be established for instruction in the 
ancient languages of the Scripture and in pure Latin; 
and, that matters of importance might receive the kind 
of attention they called for, a number of classes should 
be constituted of the churches located within certain 
defined bounds. The review of the proceedings of these 
conventions must be of great interest to all who are not 
indifferent to the origin and differences of the customs 
of the Reformed Church to-day. 

The National Synod which convened in the city of 
Wezel, in Kleefsland on the lower Rhine, met on 
November 3, 1568. We do not know how long it re- 
mained in session. It was constituted of the representa- 
tives of about twenty churches; but of how many from 
each church it is impossible to decide. The matter of 
delegation was determined only at a subsequent synod. 
Its proceedings were subscribed to by fifty-three persons. 
The first name on the list is that of Petrus Dathenus. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



77 



From this fact it is presumed that he was the presiding 
officer. Then follow the names of Henry Moclet; Zuylen 
Van Nyeveld, whose versification of the Psalms was 
then in use by the Eeformed Church in London; and 
Philip of Marnix, Lord of St. Aldegonde, eminent as a 
soldier, a statesman, a man of letters and a controvertist, 
as keen, logical and triumphant as the celebrated author 
of the " Provincial Letters" (Pascal). 

Evidently the Synod of Wezel determined that its acts 
should be of a provisional character only, and prepara- 
tory to enactments of a more definite nature. Its posi- 
tive decisions were few. The confession of faith, 
adopted two years before at Antwerp, was not even at 
this synod subscribed. But it was resolved that every 
one who had been lawfully called to the ministry should 
be asked at his examination, whether he agreed in every- 
thing with the doctrine that was publicly taught in the 
churches, and is contained in the Netherlands confes- 
sion of faith and in the Heidelberg Catechism. It was 
also decided that the Netherland Walloon churches 
should use the catechism of Geneva, but the JSTetherland 
German churches that of Heidelberg. Further, the 
synod provided that in their worship the churches 
should employ the Dutch versification of the Psalms by 
Petrus Dathenus. The bulk of its proceedings relate to 
the definition of the duties of church officers, of whom 
it declared — basing its definition upon apostolic pre- 
cepts — that there should be four orders, to whom per- 
tain the care both for the purity of the ministry and the 
conservation of morals; and to whom were intrusted 
the sacraments and discipline which, as joined to the 
Word of God, are the lawful witnesses of His church. 
These orders were the ministry, doctors (teachers), 
elders and deacons. 



78 REFORMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Before a minister could be installed lie was to be asked 
in the presence of the congregation, whether he solemnly 
covenanted: 

" That in his ministry he would aim at the promotion 
of the honor of God, the pure ministry of the Word 
and the edification of his church; that he would not 
bend the witness of the Holy Ghost to his special de- 
sires; nor depart in the least from the truth, for the 
sake of favor, money or fear; that he would piously 
maintain the ordinances which pertain to the peace and 
the order of the Church; and that he would fulfil his 
office in exhorting, rebuking and consoling, whenever 
there was need of it, exclusive of all partiality or respect 
of persons." 

The Synod in connection with the duties of ministers, 
uttered a word in regard to the substance of Sermons, 
which in these times is of a special significance. 

" Every minister," it said, " shall try, according to 
the gift received from the Holy Ghost, to interpret the 
Scripture as plainly as possible, and to apply it to the 
understanding of his hearers. He must carefully avoid 
all affectation and bombast, to which many are tempted 
who wish to please themselves with useless speculations; 
who wander from the well-defined design of the Scrip- 
ture; who sport with subtle allegories; who make a dis- 
play of heathenish testimonies, and even unholy and 
fabulous histories; who with more zeal than is becom- 
ing, seek for and praise the utterances of the Fathers; 
who intentionally are obscure in phrases and words; and 
finally, ivlw arrange their sermons zvith a vieiu of making 
idle exhibitions. All preaching should le directed to- 
tvard two articles of the gospel— faith and repentance. 
With respect to the former, hold up the knowledge of 
Christ; with respect to the latter, true mortification and 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



79 



regeneration. Every effort must be made to lift up the 
curtain that hangs before the heart, and to look into its 
corners. False opinions, heresies and bad morals must 
be rebuked. Eebukes should not be restricted to gross 
crimes and open sins, but the hidden hypocrisy must be 
shaken out of souls, and the nursery of the godlessness, 
pride and ingratitude, which lie concealed in the best 
people, must be exposed and broken up. The memory 
of the hearers must not be burdened with too long ser- 
mons; their zeal should not thus be dulled, nor should 
they be nauseated, especially on the days when they 
should be allowed to do their work and to attend the 
prophesyings. Hence a sermon should not be longer than 
one hour !" 

" Prophesying" — the men here referred to made up 
the second order of ministry provided by the Synod of 
"Wezel. They were the doctors, on whom devolved the 
duty "when the congregation was assembled, to explain 
a text, as Paul had instituted." These men were sub- 
ordinate to the ministers. In every flourishing congre- 
gation there was to be a college of prophets, who in rota- 
tion were to instruct the congregation upon the contents 
of a book of the Bible. At one time this was done in 
the Socratic method of questions and answers, but the 
Synod decided that this method should be abandoned 
because it " ministered to strife and debate." That the 
ears of the people might not be disturbed by a variety 
of opinions upon doctrinal matters in dispute, they were 
to be referred to these prophets, "since to them per- 
tained the trial of spirits and doctrines." In the church 
in London these prophesyings were held on Thursday 
evenings. 

The elders were directed to watch carefully over 
the parishes; once a week to visit the families, going 



80 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



from house to house, especially at the time of the 
communion, and to inquire whether they conducted 
themselves aright, performed their duties, observed 
family worship each morning and evening, and sent the 
children to the catechetical exercises; and to urge the 
people to steadfastness, to strengthen unto patience, to 
stimulate them in the fear of God and to comfort them 
in their sickness. As the occasion demanded, the elders 
were to call their fellow-elders together, especially those 
who had been appointed to rebuke. 

The ordinance concerning the deacons was that they 
must minister at the communion table, aid the poor and 
collect the alms, exhorting those whom God had blessed 
with temporal goods to contribute in behalf of the 
needy. The Synod decided that in churches in large 
cities it would be proper to have two classes of deacons. 
To the one class should pertain the collection and dis- 
tribution of alms; and, in case any of the poor had been 
made legatees, these deacons were to see to it that the 
legacy was obtained and paid over to the proper persons. 
The other class were to secure for the sick, the wounded 
and the prisoners the appropriate supplies; and, that 
they might be able to comfort such afflicted, they were 
to have the qualifications not only of zeal and faithful- 
ness, but also of a more than general knowledge of the 
Word. These latter deacons were to inquire diligently 
of the elders what persons in their several districts were 
prostrated with sickness. The sick themselves, the 
Synod said, were to inform the pastors of their condition, 
so that they might be visited by them. In case, how- 
ever, that the pastors were occupied with more import- 
ant business, the deacons by their orders were to per- 
form such visitation. 

There were certain matters which this Synod declared 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



81 



were of an indifferent character; that is, they were not 
determined by apostolic precept and example, nor by 
necessity. Hence, for the purpose of avoiding all 
tyrannizing oyer the consciences of men, it would not 
bind the church by any deliverances. These matters 
w r ere of the following description: whether in baptism 
there should be one or more sprinklings; whether the 
rite should be administered before or after the sermon; 
whether the care of baptized children should devolve 
upon the witnesses, the parents or the church; whether, 
in the administration of the Lord's Supper, the elements 
should be handed to persons as they were seated at the 
table, or as they in procession walked past it; whether, 
during the administration, psalms should be read or 
sung. Some of these matters were decided at subse- 
quent Synods, whose proceedings were influenced, not 
only by the progress of the church in its efforts at organ- 
ization, but also by the development of the State to- 
ward independence and the right of self-government. 



82 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



XL 

THE SYNOD OF EMBDEN. 

Nearly three years had passed since the General 
Synod of Wezel in Kleefsland. The condition of things 
in the church and in the state was about the same that 
it had been. Alva was still ravaging both, and all who 
could sought safety in flight. The Eeformed "were 
troubled on every side yet not distressed; perplexed but 
not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down 
but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the 
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might 
be made manifest in their body." Their trust was not 
to be confounded. The hour for which they hoped and 
prayed, when in their own land they should be per- 
mitted to worship according to the dictates of their own 
consciences enlightened by the Word, was even nearer 
than they thought. 

With a view of being prepared, when that time should 
have come, to go up and possess their native land, it was 
considered that the interests of the church would be 
subserved by the holding of another synod, for the pur- 
pose not only of confirming the acts of the preceding 
synod, but also of making such other enactments as a 
riper experience and a clearer insight into the future 
seemed to call for. Accordingly, a synod was consti- 
tuted, in 1571, of "the churches which sit under the 
Cross and are scattered throughout Germany and East 
Friesland." It met on October 5. It cannot now be 
told how many churches were represented in it, nor of 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



83 



how many members it was composed. Its president was 
Kasper Van der Heyden, pastor of the church at Frank- 
enthal. The proceedings of this synod are not as num- 
erous as those of the following; but this is easily ex- 
plained on the ground that the church was still in exile, 
and by reason of persecution could as yet have only a 
partial organization. What was done, however, was of 
considerable importance. 

In the first place, the Confession of Faith, which had 
not as yet been subscribed to by the ministers, at this 
meeting received the recognition of the clerical sign- 
manual. It was resolved that the Confession should be 
subscribed to, as a witness to the concord between the 
Netherland churches in regard to the doctrines which it 
sets forth; that the Confession of the Walloon churches 
should be signed, in token of the agreement in doctrine 
between the Netherland Eeformed Church and the 
Walloon Church; and further, that all ministers who 
were absent from this synod were exhorted to concur in 
the subscription to both Confessions. For the reason, 
perhaps, that the Confession, now for the first time, was 
publicly signed by the ministerial members of an ecclesi- 
astical assembly, Mosheim says in his history (vol. 3, p. 
182), that the Belgic Confession of Faith was published 
in this year. But this is a mistake. The publication 
was nine years earlier. 

It was determined, moreover, that the ministers, 
elders and deacons of each church — now called The Con- 
sistory — should meet at least once in each week for the 
transaction of business pertaining to that church. A 
classical convention, composed of a few churches con- 
tiguous to one another, should be held once every three 
or six months; the Reformed churches scattered through- 
out Germany and East Friesland should be in session 



84 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

every year; and a national synod, composed of all the 
churches, must meet once in two years. 

Further, the bounds were fixed of seven Glasses, con- 
stituted of the churches in Germany and in the Southern 
Netherlands. The constitution of the Classes in the 
Northern Netherlands was the work of a later synod. 
As indicating the places where the refugees from the 
Council of Blood found a home, a glance at the bound- 
aries of the Classes fixed by this synod is not without 
interest: 

I. Two churches of Frankfort, the French church of 
Heidelberg, the church of Frankenthal, the church of 
St. Lambert, and others. 

II. Two churches of Cologne, two of Aken ; the 
churches of Maastricht, Limburg, Nuys, and those in 
the land of Gulick. 

III. The churches of Wezel, Emmerik, and others in 
Kleefsland. 

IV. The church of Embden, and the foreign ministers 
and elders of Holland, Brabant and West Friesland. 

V. Two churches of Antwerp, and those of Bois le 
due, Breda, Brussels, and others. 

VI. The churches of Ghent, Oudenaarde, and others in 
East and West Flanders. 

VII. The churches of Doornik, Armentieres, Valenci- 
ennes, and other Walloon churches. 

Acts and Kesolutions. — To the act of the Synod of 
Wezel, that the French-speaking churches should use 
the Catechism of Geneva and the Dutch-speaking 
churches that of .Heidelberg, it was added that, if any 
church of the former class used the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism, and any of the latter that of Geneva, it was not 
by this resolution compelled to make a change. 

Two other resolutions related, respectively, to the 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



85 



calls made upon ministers, and to the comparative 
standing of the churches and their officers among them- 
selves. 

In reference to the former, the Synod declared that a 
pastor to preside over and to minister to a church must 
be elected by the consistory, such election being subject 
to the approval of the Olassis to which the church be- 
longs; or, to that of three ministers of neighboring 
churches. The call, having received this approval, was 
then to be submitted to the church from whose consis- 
tory it had issued, a period of two weeks being allowed 
for the bringing in of any objection to it. 

As to the latter — the comparative standing of churches 
and their officers among themselves, it was ordained that 
"no church shall lord it over another church; nor one 
elder over another; nor one deacon over another deacon; 
but every one shall be on his guard against the suspicion 
of, or the temptation to, the exercise of dominion." 
This resolution doubtless was in support of the Calvin- 
istic tenet of the parity of the ministry, and was directed 
against the introduction into the Reformed Church of 
the polity favored by Zwingle, on the one hand, and that, 
on the other, prevalent in the Church of England. 

Six months after the adjournment of this synod, a 
turn in the tide of. affairs took place, most favorable to 
the interests of the Reformed Church. The city of Briel 
was captured on April 1, 1572, and by this success the 
way was opened for the final triumph of the arms of the 
Prince of Orange, and the opening of the land for the 
return of those who had fled from persecution for con- 
science sake. Alva was recalled on December 1, 1573, 
and with his departure the reign of an unparalleled 
cruelty came to an end, and the form of liberty, for 
Church and State, began to arise from the dust from 
which it had been feared it never would arise. 
8 



86 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



XII. 

THE PEOVINCTAL SYNOD OF DOEDEECHT. 

The year 1574 was one of the most trying for the 
people of the Netherlands. Alva had retired and Don 
Louis de Bequesens, a man who was not the equal of his 
predecessor in ferocity, had taken his place; but the 
war, with its unparalleled cruelty, was continuing. 
Haarlem had fallen, and the siege of Ley den was pro- 
gressing, while its citizens were reduced to such straits 
of famine that they devoured cats, dogs and rats, ac- 
counting them great delicacies. 

On June 6 the Eegent, who had the strange idea 
that the people in general were not much concerned 
about religion, had issued a proclamation of amnesty 
which, indeed, was broader in its application than that 
issued in 1570, but excluded the Protestant ministers 
from its provisions. It had but little effect, for the 
people we?*e concerned about religion, being determined 
to worship God according to the dictates of consciences 
which had received light from the Word of the Lord. 
Besides, their minds were filled with distrust of the 
Spaniards. The situation was indeed a gloomy one, but 
— as the darkest hour of the night is that which pre- 
cedes the dawn — so the period of the greatest affliction 
endured by the Netherlands was that which immediately 
went before the deliverance which Glod intended to give. 

That the cause of the Beformed Church, notwith- 
standing, was advancing, is evident from the fact that 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



87 



in this year the first synod was held in the land. The 
churches of Holland and Zeeland met in a Provincial 
Synod on June 16, and remained in session until June 
28. While its enactments, as regards the church in 
general, were in the main in agreement with those of 
the Synod of Embden, its chief design was to frame 
ordinances in the interest of the churches of Holland 
and Zeeland. Its acts are ninety-one in number and 
relate to a variety of subjects. The congregations in 
these provinces must have been numerous, for the 
Synod formed, of the churches located in North and 
South Holland and Zeeland, fourteen Classes. These 
were directed, each of them, to hold a monthly session. 
Each Olassis had the right given to it to unite with it- 
self another Classis, whenever the circumstances should 
render this advisable; but this union was to last only so 
long as a separate organization might be rendered im- 
possible by the exigencies of the war. The Consistories 
were to consist of ministers and elders only, except in 
cases where the elders were few in number, when the 
deacons would be permitted to join them. Every con- 
sistory was required to preserve a copy of the proceed- 
ings of the Synod of Embden, and also of this synod. 
Further, it was decided that upon the members of the 
consistory alone devolves the election of a pastor. This 
resolution must have contemplated independence from 
the magistrates in the choice of a minister, and not sov- 
ereignty over the people; for it was stipulated, that if 
the male members of the church desired to participate in 
such choice, they were not to be deprived of the privi- 
lege. By order of this synod also, the consistories were 
required to sign the articles relating to the exercise of 
ecclesiastical discipline. As to the Confession of Faith, 
all the ministers were enjoined to subscribe to it, they at 



88 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



the same time binding themselves to render obedience 
to the Classes. School teachers, also, were directed to 
sign the confession. In connection with the Confession 
the Catechism received proper synodical attention. Only 
one Catechism was to be used, the Heidelberg. It was 
to be preached from in the afternoon of each Lord's day 
in which the communion had been administered in the 
morning. The schoolmasters also were to instruct their 
scholars in it. The contents of Article -40 are very 
curious. It was approved, that the people shall be 
taught in the main from the New Testament. Ministers 
were at liberty indeed to preach from the Old Testa- 
ment, but only upon consultation with, and by advice of 
their consistories. In reference to the topics of sermons 
a prohibition was issued against the practice of some 
ministers in folllowing the Eomish priests in the use of 
what were called dominicalia. These were a series of 
texts taken from the gospels, which the ministers who 
were fond of them made the basis of a number of con- 
secutive Sabbath morning discourses. No attention was 
paid to this synodical prohibition. At the National 
Synod of Dordrecht, in 1578, the command upon this 
matter was changed into a kind recommendation. The 
same action was taken at Middelburg in 1581. By a 
singular concession to the popular wishes, the Synod of 
Drenthe, held in 1613, actually enjoined the use of these 
texts in the manner desired. There are but few traces 
of this practice at the present time. In public worship 
the liturgical prayers were to be used, and none others. 
The psalms versified by Petrus Dathenus were to be used 
in singing, and also the hymns in use with the psalms, 
until such time as a National Synod should direct other- 
wise. ' In regard to the musical part of divine worship, 
this synod, as also those of 1578 and 1581, inveighed 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



89 



in very strong language against the playing of organs 
before, during and after service. It was said to minister 
to superstition, and it was denounced as a Jewish, a 
heathenish, and a Papistical custom. In 1589, this ques- 
tion gave occasion for a bitter dispute between the 
ministers and the magistrates of Arnheim. 

It seems to have been the custom in those days, as it 
is now in many places, to give notices from the pulpit 
other than those pertaining to religious matters. The 
sale and the purchase of land were thus advertised. At 
this synod there was a protest against this practice, 
winch was justly styled a profane and a worldly one, 
and ministers were directed to urge the magistrates to 
keep such things out of the churches. 

In regard to baptism, it was decided that on every oc- 
casion of its administration the form still in use should 
be read, and also, that the officiating minister should 
besprinkle the subject with water only once. 

The Eef ormed churches had been in the habit of keep- 
ing Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide as days of re- 
ligious worship. The synod enjoined the churches to 
do this no longer, but to be satisfied with Sundays for 
divine service. Ministers were permitted, however, on 
the Sundays preceeding such festivals, to preach on the 
subjects of the Incarnation, the Eesurrection and the 
Descent of the Holy Spirit. The people also had a 
custom of meeting for what was called "evening 
prayers," when the ministers presided and read the 
prayers of the liturgy. In large cities such meetings 
were held every evening. The synod, deeming that 
this practice was too much like observing vespers, spoke 
against it. The people valued these meetings, and 
would not give them up. In 1619 they were finally 
abandoned. For the conservation of purity in doctrine, 



90 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



ministers were directed to exhort the people, from the 
pulpit, to be diligent in the reading of the Bible, and to 
avoid all heretical books. The enumeration of such 
books by name was to be sparingly done. The book- 
sellers, however, such as were of the Reformed faith, 
were exhorted not to print nor to sell such books. The 
pastors were to ascertain in the course of their visitation, 
whether any families had such books in their houses, and 
if so, to urge them to put them away. 

Against the baptisms and the marriages performed in 
secret by Romish ecclesiastics, the ministers were to 
invoke the protection of the magistrates. Lombards 
(money-lenders) were not to be admitted to the Lord's 
table. The acts of the synod in regard to Anabaptists 
were severely criticised on the ground of their severity, 
which, it was said, could not be justified in view of the 
terrible history of the times. If these Anabaptists re- 
fused to take the oath of obedience to the civil authority, 
the magistrates were not to tolerate them. They were 
to be admonished to attend the Reformed churches; arid, 
in case they refused to have their children baptized, the 
ministers were to summon such persons before them, 
and to inquire into their delinquency. The ministers 
also were to attend their assemblies, and to seek to con- 
vince them of the evil of their course. If any person 
had fallen away to the Mennonites, he was to be excom- 
municated. 

The friction between the ecclesiastical and the civil 
authorities already began to appear. This synod was 
mainly composed of Calvinists, to whom the Church and 
the State were separate and distinct existences. The 
States, and at the head of them the Prince of Orange, 
leaned over to the Zwinglian views of church govern- 
ment. The clashing between the two opinions led to 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



91 



mutual jealousies. In 1575 the Prince directed that no 
consistories should be recognized, except such as had 
been approved and appointed by the magistrates. He 
disliked even the name consistory. He feared that the 
church would arrogate to itself too much authority. He 
said, that if the pot of the Calvinists were to hang over 
the fire as long as that of the Eoman Catholics had hung 
oyer it, it would gather as much soot. Though he knew 
of this synod, and the States approved of its being held, 
yet when a committee of two ministers of the synod 
sought to place a copy of its acts in their hands, they 
declined to receive it, saying, ' ' When we desire to see 
it, we shall ask for it." These mutual jealousies were 
yet to occasion much trouble. 



92 EEFOKMED CHUKCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



XIII. 

THE FIRST NATIONAL SYNOD OF DORDRECHT. 

After a term of office lasting two years and six 
months, Don Louis de Kequesens suddenly died of a 
fever, March 5, 1576. He was succeeded by the young 
Don John of Austria, with the praise of whom, because 
of a brilliant victory over the Turks in the Levant, the 
whole of Europe was then resounding. On November 
4 of that year, he entered upon the regency, and on 
November 8 the treaty was signed which is known as 
"the Pacification of Ghent." It was signed by Marnix 
of Aldegonde, with eight other commissioners appointed 
by the Prince of Orange and the estates of Holland, on 
the one side; and by deputies from Brabant, Flanders, 
Artois, Hainault, Valenciennes, Lille, Douay, Orchies, 
Namur, Tournay, Utrecht and Mechlin, on the other 
side. Of this treaty Motley observes, in his " Rise of 
the Dutch Republic" (vol. 3, p. 126), that it was a mas- 
terpiece of diplomacy on the part of the Prince of 
Orange, for it was as effectual a provision for the safety 
of the Reformed religion as could be expected under the 
circumstances. It was much, considering the change 
that had of late been wrought in the fifteen provinces, 
that they should consent to any treaty with their two 
heretic sisters (Holland and Zeeland). It was much 
more, that the Pacification should recognize the new 
religion as the established creed of these two provinces, 
while at the same time the infamous edicts of Charles 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



98 



were formally abolished. The new religion was firmly 
established in the two provinces and tolerated in the 
other fifteen, and the Inquisition was forever abolished. 

Toward the close of 1577 (Dec. 7th), Don John, by 
resolution of the States, was declared an enemy of the 
land, and the Archduke Matthias, a brother of the Ger- 
man emperor, was invited by a number of the Netherland 
nobles to take his place, having the Prince of Orange 
as stadtholder joined with him in the government. 
Though this measure, designed by a particular party, 
was intended as a limitation upon the authority of the 
Prince and as a check upon the ultra-Keformed, who 
could not listen to any project which had for its aim the 
equal toleration of the Koman Catholics and the Protest- 
ants, it was not opposed by the Prince, who took the 
young archduke (then only twenty years of age) under 
his protection. In the meantime, the country was still 
the scene of dreadful war and suffered the numerous ills 
that follow in its train. The want of resolution and 
the lack of unanimity on the part of the States brought 
about the defeat of the armies of the struggling prov- 
inces at Gemblours, by which the cause of Spain under 
Don John gained new vigor, and much anxiety was 
caused at Brussels. 

Such was the situation when a National Synod was 
held at Dordrecht, June 2-18. It was charged that the 
convening of this synod without the lawful permission 
of the States would result in evil. From this opinion, 
held by the party which inclined to the recognition of 
the civil power in things pertaining to the church, it 
may readily be inferred that the friction between the 
church and the state, so far from having been allayed 
since the Provincial Synod of Dordrecht in 1574, was 
increasing. The synod took an independent stand, and 



94 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

declared that in things ecclesiastical the controlling 
power is Tested in the church alone. It was disposed, 
however, to yield dne deference to the state in respect 
to matters that lie within its sphere. It decided that in 
cases in which the interests of the church and the state 
were both involved, the dispute arising from them 
should be brought to an end at joint meetings of the 
consistory of the church and the magistrates of the 
place. There seems to have been a concession to the 
state in the enactment, that a call made upon a minister 
must also have the approval of the magistrates. 

At this meeting the acts of preceding synods, in ref- 
erence to the character and the number of legislative 
bodies in the Church, were confirmed. In the church 
of Eome each episcopal diocese was divided into several 
diaconates, whose presiding officers were called decani 
Chris kianitatis, and sometimes provisores. These diaco- 
nates were again divided into several parishes each, 
whose priests held monthly meetings for the purpose of 
consulting about the interests of their charges. It is 
thought that upon this arrangments as a basis, a synod 
held at Teure, as far back as 1563, had projected a sys- 
tem of government vested in Consistories, Classes, Pro- 
vincial Synods and National Synods. At the meetings 
of such legislative bodies, this synod stated, only eccle- 
siastical business should be transacted, and only such 
matters should be referred to the next higher court as 
could not have been disposed of in the lower. The dele- 
gates constituting those conventions above consistories 
were, in the case of the classes, a minister and an elder 
from each church; in the provincial synods, two min- 
isters and two elders from each of four or five neighbor- 
ing classes; and in the National Synod, two ministers 
and two elders from each provincial synod, including 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



95 



also the Walloon and the German synods — between whom, 
on account of confusion often arising from dissimilarity 
of language, a dividing line was now drawn. The dele- 
gates to these several bodies were required to have 
written credentials. 

In addition to previous decisions relating to the duties 
of consistories, classes and synods, this synod resolved 
that each consistory should keep a book in which it 
should record its minutes; the names of the communi- 
cants of the church; the baptisms of the children, 
with the names of the baptized, the names of the parents 
and the witnesses, and the time when the rite was ad- 
ministered; and the marriages. If any one proposed 
to unite with the church, he was to be examined pri- 
vately by the consistory, or by delegates from the con- 
sistory — the minister and one elder. After examination, 
such person was required to state, either before the 
whole consistory or in the presence of the congregation, 
after the sermon and before the communion, that he 
held for truth the doctrines to which he had made 
profession; that he would continue in these doctrines, 
and that he submitted to the supervision of the church. 
In letters of dismission issued by any consistory, the 
statements were to be made that the person concerned 
had walked in a Christian manner, without giving offense, 
and that he had been diligent in attending the preaching 
of the saving Word and in observing the Sacraments. 

In reference to classes it was decreed that each classis 
should meet at a previously designated place, every four 
or six weeks. At every meeting a new president must 
be appointed and a clerk. The same man, however, 
was not to be permitted to serve as president at two 
consecutive meetings. At every meeting the president 
was to make the following inquiries of the delegates 



96 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



from each church: Is discipline properly exercised? 
Does the church sutler from the assaults of heretics? Is 
the church harassed concerning points of doctrine? Are 
the schools and the poor carefully attended to? Did 
the church require for its adequate government the aid 
of other brethren? The importance of the classis as a 
supervising body was evidently on the increase. 

Concerning the provincial synods which were to meet 
once a year, it was resolved that in every ease it was to 
partake of the Lord's Supper with the church where its 
meeting was held. The National Synod was to convene 
once in every three years, and to transact the business 
which could not have been done at the sessions of the 
provincial synods. This triennial arrangement was not 
adhered to after the Synod of Middelburg (1581); for, 
subsequently to the Synod of the Hague (1586), there 
was no National Synod till the great Synod of Dort 
(1618, 1619.) " 

Inasmuch as some ministers had expressed the opinion 
that they were not bound by the Confession of Faith, but 
had a right to depart from it — particularly as regards 
Articles 16 (Of Eternal Election), and 35 (Of the Holy 
Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ) — this synod, and also 
that of 1586, felt compelled to take stringent measures. 
It was resolved that the professors of theology and the 
elders of the churches should sign it. The Synod of 
1586 added to these the schoolmasters, and declared that 
if any minister or professor refused to subscribe it, he 
should be deposed from his office. 

A previous enactment in reference to Christmas, 
Easter and "Whitsuntide was confirmed by this synod; 
and regret was expressed at the stand taken on this sub- 
ject by the magistrates, who, it was said, by their ordi- 
nance forbidding any manual labor to be performed on 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



97 



these days, gave aid to superstitious practices. As it 
was impossible to stem the stream of the popular wishes 
in regard to keeping these feast-days, the Synod of the 
Hague in 1586 declared, that if they must be kept at all 
hazards, then with as much solemnity as possible. 

A resolution was also adopted prohibiting the ringing 
of church bells at funerals, but to this resolution no 
heed whatever was given. 

Three days after the adjournment of this synod, on 
June 21, a petition for liberty in religion for all was 
handed to the Archduke Matthias and the Council of 
State. It was composed by the consent, and probably 
somewhat under the supervision, of this synod. It is 
a remarkable document, in which complaints, arguments 
and bold requests are artfully blended. At the close it 
was asked that "both religions might be tolerated, until 
it should please God to equalize all conflicting views 
which exist in the land on the subject of religion, by 
means of a* good, a holy, and a quite general — or, at 
least, a national— council." Two weeks later, a petition 
of like import was handed in, wherein the statement 
was made, that while the liberty of the Protestant wor- 
ship was asked for, there was no disposition to interfere 
with others who held to the faith of Eome. In response, 
certain concessions were made in the form of " a treaty 
of religious peace," by the terms of which, though ap- 
parently diverging from the Pacification of G-hent, it 
was hoped that the Northern and the Southern Nether- 
lands might, both in their religious and political inter- 
ests, be kept united. This treaty gave great offence 
to the Ultra- Eeformed, who could not endure the idea 
even of extending such permissive support to the Eomish 
cause. Petrus Dathenus, who was then pastor at Ghent, 
went so far as to say from the pulpit, that the points in 
9 



98 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the treaty relating to the practice of the Roman Catholic 
religion were ungodly, and that the Prince of Orange, 
who f ayored the treaty, had neither God nor religion. 
That this intolerant spirit on the part of some, who were 
leaders at the time in the Reformed Church, had a bane- 
ful effect, interfering with its highest prosperity, may 
readily be conceded. 



FORMATIVE PEKIOD. 



99 



XIV. 

THE SYNOD OF MIDDELBURG. 

During and immediately after the year 1578, in which 
the National Synod of Dordrecht was held, the histories 
of the Church and State, which in the Netherlands 
ran in parallel lines, became exceedingly complicated. 
Under the tremendous pressure of a conflict with the 
mighty Spanish empire, the Prince of Orange attempted 
to invoke the aid of neighboring potentates. Some of 
the nobles had invited the Archduke Matthias, brother 
of the German Emperor, to take conjointly with Prince 
William, the place of Don John of Austria. The Prince 
for some time had turned his eyes toward France, and ' 
was in favor of negotiating with Francis, a brother of 
King Henry III., and Duke of Alengon and Anjou, 
whose domain was so situated that, according to the side 
which he took, he could greatly benefit or injure the 
Netherlands. Though the Archduke Matthias, a ma- 
jority of the States, and the Protestants generally, were 
opposed to him, he was called, on August 13, 1578, to 
assume the office of Protector of the liberties of the 
Netherlands ; a promise having been given him that, in 
case of a change of sovereigns, the Provinces would sub- 
mit to him in the place of King Philip. 

But Anjou was a Eoman Catholic. The fear of French 
influence, and the desire of the Protestants to have 
among them one of the most zealous of the Reformed 
foreign princes, led the ultra-Reformed party to invite 



100 REFORMED CHURCH IN" THE NETHERLANDS. 

John Casimir, second son of the Elector Frederic III. of 
the Palatinate. His arrival, which was supported by 
Queen Elizabeth of England, awakened the suspicion of 
the Eoman Catholic party. It thus tended, as Prince 
William had predicted, toward a separation between 
the Northern and the Southern provinces; which, but 
for the fact that the vacillation of Philip rendered the 
best efforts of his general futile, would have resulted in 
the 're-conquest of the land and its second subjection 
to the Spanish power. On Jan. 5, 1579, the treaty of 
Atrecht was signed between Hainault, Artois and Door- 
nik in behalf of the maintenance of the Roman Catho- 
lic religion; and on Jan. 23, that of "the Union of 
Utrecht" between Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and a por- 
tion of Gelderland, by which the establishment of liberty 
of religion was recognized in Holland and Zeeland, and 
it was agreed that in the other provinces, upon the terms 
of " the religious peace," the Roman Catholic or the 
Protestant religion should prevail upon the petition of 
one hundred families. 

In this year (1579), Alexander Farnese, Prince of 
Parma, a son of the former regent Margaret, was ap- 
pointed to the regency by King Philip. His singular 
abilities, as a general and a statesman, made him an 
enemy formidable enough to be opposed by the States 
when most closely united ; and, in case of divisions 
between them, rendered their situation still more pre- 
carious. The history of the complications to which 
these divisions gave rise, and which were made still more 
dangerous by the treason of some who had pretended 
friendship for the state and the cause of the Reformation, 
cannot here be given in detail. But out of this confusion 
G-od brought safety, that it might appear all the more 
that the final triumph was not of man but of Him. 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



101 



Under the circumstances thus briefly described, the 
National Synod of Middelburg was held in the year 
1581, during the months of May and June. The rela- 
tion between the Church and the State had not yet been 
settled. A strict line of demarcation between them — or 
a general supervision of the latter oyer the former — or a 
recognition of the authority of the latter in some mat- 
ters pertaining to the former — had each its supporters. 
In organizing this synod the States were asked to send a 
delegation, to aid in determining what might be of value 
to the church and not contrary to the interests of the 
State. The reply of the States was, that they did not 
disapprove the holding of a synod, but they would not 
send delegates, trusting that what should be done would 
be to the honor of God and for the edification of the 
Church. Many were of the opinion that the Church was 
extending its authority too far, and it is thought that 
the refusal of the States to send representatives, was 
owing to a secret purpose of framing a code of laws for 
the government of the Church, the imposition of which 
could be delayed until a suitable time. 

The synod, however, intended to maintain its inde- 
pendence in things ecclesiastical, for it decided that the 
authority of the State should not be recognized in the 
election of ministers, nor in that of elders and deacons. 
Still, the prevalence of the Zwinglian views of govern- 
ment can be seen from the fact that it was seriously pro- 
posed to establish some kind of a superintendence — part 
ecclesiastical and part civic — senatus ex ecclesiasticis et 
politicis. Nevertheless, after some discussion, the Cal- 
vinistic view prevailed; and it was resolved that on the 
whole, this kind of mixed supervision had better be 
avoided. A dispute, arising from the same unsettled 
relation between the Churchy and the_ State, came to a 



102 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

head at this time. Since 1578 there had been a strife 
between Kasper Koolhaas and Peter Peterson, two pas- 
tors of Eeformed churches in Leyden. The former held 
that the civil power should be recognized so far, that 
there should be no appointment of elders and deacons 
before their names had been submitted to the magistrates 
for their approval. Peterson opposed him, and declared 
that the appointment should be independent of the mag- 
istracy. Hence a fierce conflict arose between the two men, 
which so affected the churches, that for a year and a half 
there was no communion service at Leyden, and at the 
first Lord's Supper after that period, only one hundred 
persons participated. The magistrates deposed Peterson 
from his ministry, but not with the approbation of the 
Prince and the States, who advised his restoration. At 
this synod the writings of Koolhaas were declared 
heterodox. Thus another blow was struck for the in- 
dependence of the Church. 

The subscription to the Confession again come up. It 
was resolved that ministers, elders and deacons, professors 
of theology and schoolmasters must sign it. As indica- 
tive, perhaps, of a secret hostility to the acts requiring 
such signature — if not to the Confession itself — is the 
fact that some ministers present at this synod appeared 
to know nothing about this symbol, exclaiming, " What 
Confession of thirty-seven articles is this?" 

The question was asked, whether, instead of the cate- 
chism, some other topic for a thanksgiving discourse 
might not be preached from, on the afternoon of the 
Sunday that the Lord's Supper had been administered in 
the morning. It was resolved that this might be left to 
the option of each minister. 

In the liturgical form for the excommunication of a de- 
linquent, obdurate member, it was resolved to insert the 



FORMATIVE PERIOD. 



103 



phrase, " We give him over to Satan." This brings ns 
to notice the recommendation to abandon a singular 
practice, which hitherto had been prevalent, viz., the 
exhibition, at each Sunday service, of the possession by 
the pastor of the Power of the Keys. This advice was 
grounded on the opinion, that the very preaching of the 
Gospel demonstrated the possession of this power by the 
ecclesiastical authorities. 

Because of the interest that attaches to it, we give the 
account of the church-service as conducted at that time 
in the Church of London, and with slight modifications, 
everywhere in the Eeformed Churches. 

The congregation having assembled, the minister 
entered the pulpit, and by a short address prepared the 
Christian brothers and sisters for the offering of a solemn 
prayer. For this prayer there was a form — the same which 
is to be found in the present liturgy, designated as the 
one to be used before the teaching from the catechism. 
After this prayer a psalm was sung. The minister then 
announced his text, and preached a sermon from it. 
This text did not consist of one, two, or three verses, 
but of an entire argument, or of a complete history. The 
minister sometimes would take a whole book of the 
Bible — as, for example, the epistle to the Romans — 
which he explained in a few discourses on successive 
days, and which he applied to the hearts of the people 
in an expostulatory, hortatory, minatory, or consolatory 
method. These homilies partook of the nature of the 
Bible-readings of our day. Each of them lasted one 
hour. After the sermon, the minister announced the 
notices, but such only as related to the public worship. 
A short liturgical prayer was next offered. Then the 
law of the Ten Commandments was read, in a very 
impressive manner, and the minister took occasion to 



104 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

stimulate liis congregation to the confession of sin and 
to the desire for grace and pardon. This was followed 
by his reading, as the mouth-piece of the congregation, 
a liturgical prayer in which confession was made and 
pardon implored. Next in order was the uttering by 
the minister, in virtue of his official investiture with the 
power to open and close the Kingdom of Heaven, the 
following sentences in a very solemn manner: 

"Since it has pleased God to receive in mercy the 
sincerely penitent sinners who confess their sins, and on 
the contrary to abandon to themselves the obstinate sin- 
ners who hide or excuse their sins, I, out of the word of 
the Lord, announce to the penitent who put their trust 
in Christ alone, that through His merits all their sins 
are forgiven in Heaven, Amen; but to as many as there 
may be among you who will not confess their sins and 
reform (and even if they do confess them, seek another 
help unto their salvation than the only merit of the 
righteousness of Christ our Lord) and thus love dark- 
ness more than light — I, also out of the word of Cod, 
announce that in heaven all their sins are bound, and 
shall not be unbound until they repent." 

Then came the reading of the Apostles' Creed, to the 
end that every one might try himself whether he, too, 
could say from the heart, " I believe," and could assure 
himself of the pardoning grace of Cod. A general 
prayer, as it was called, followed; in which the interests 
and the needs of the church were remembered, and in- 
tercessions were made for governments, the persecuted 
brethren, and the sick and the dying of the congrega- 
tion. This prayer was the longest of all and ended with 
the Lord's prayer. After the singing of a psalm, in 
which a precentor led, the minister commended the poor 
to the charities of the church. The deacons, standing 



FORMATIVE PEEIOD. 



105 



at the doors of the church, collected the alms, and the 
congregation was dismissed with the Old Testament 
priestly blessing. 

About a month after the adjournment of this synod, 
on July 26, 1581, the authority of Philip II. was ab- 
jured by the Netherlands, and their independence from 
the yoke of Spanish tyranny asserted. " "We reject the 
King/' wrote Marnix of St. Aldegonde, " because he, 
the sworn enemy of the true religion and of the Word of 
God, intends to retain dominion over the land on no 
other condition than to be permitted to destroy the 
Kingdom of Jesus Christ." The Reformed religion had 
become the established form of worship, at least in the 
Northern provinces. The history of the Church between 
this year and 1618, when the great National Synod of 
Dort was held, shows a variety of fortunes; but, in the 
main, it is that of a career of progress. The formative 
period of the Reformed Church came to an end with the 
Synod of Middleburg. During the two and a-half cen- 
turies that it lasted, notwithstanding the retarding and 
often the opposing influence of those most benefited by 
it, the results attained were such that the reflecting 
mind must exclaim: " What hath God wrought!' 5 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



KpoLToofjiev tr}S ojnoXoyiaS. 



I. 



A PREPARATORY SURVEY. 

The war between Spain and the Netherlands, which re- 
sulted in the political independence and the religious lib- 
erty of the latter, is said to have lasted eighty years. 
Still, it had a break in it of twelve years. At a conven- 
tion held at Antwerp on April 9, 1609, the deputies 
from the contending parties agreed upon an armistice. 
Prince William of Orange had been murdered at Delft 
on July 10, 1584, and had been succeeded by his eldest 
son Maurice, one of the ablest generals of his age. The 
earl of Leicester, who represented in the Provinces the 
authority and the interests of Queen Elizabeth of Eng- 
land, whose aid had been invoked, had gathered from 
his administration, which lasted till 1587, only pressing* 
care and bitter mortification. The worthy antagonist 
of Maurice in the field was the Italian, Ambrosius 
Spinola. Olden-Barneveldt, whose tragic end was only 
ten years off, was the distinguished Chief Counsellor of 
State. The States, while still appearing to invite the 
support of their powerful neighbors, were becoming 
more and more self-sustaining. The conflict, the aim of 
which, on the part of Spain, was to bring her daring de- 
pendencies back to their allegiance, had been maintained 
with varying fortune during the eleven years following 
the death, in 1598, of Philip II., who had entered upon 
10 



110 'REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

it at the very beginning of his reign. The cessation of 
arms which the exhaustion of both the contending 
hosts, produced by their great and continuous exertions, 
loudly called for, was resolved upon after a prolonged 
discussion of several important questions, such as the 
recognition of the freedom of the republic, the trade 
with the East Indies, and the relative condition of the 
Roman Catholics. The longing for a short respite from 
the struggle was intense enough to facilitate the settle- 
ment of these matters. The conclusion adopted in re- 
gard to them was in the main advantageous to the inter- 
ests of the Netherlands. 

This short hush in the tumults of war, this semblance 
of a peace which neither side would make permanent 
by wholly yielding that for which it fought, was in the 
Netherlands disturbed by divisions at home and by a 
most bitter strife of a politico-religious character. The 
truth, which had been wrested from the iron grasp of 
Rome, had to be defended against teachers within the 
Reformed Church itself. Many persons who had left 
the Romish communion had united with the Reformed 
Church, though they differed from it on important 
topics of doctrine and government. Between these and 
the church of their adoption which, as regards its sym- 
bols and polity, had become thoroughly Calvinistic, there 
was a friction which prevented a genuine attachment 
and speedily led to a conflict by which the Reformed 
were compelled to assume an aggressively defensive atti- 
tude. The doctrine of predestination, which defies the 
power of the human intellect to grasp it, was regarded 
as furnishing a suitable ground of attack. The aggres- 
sion began and was pursued the more confidently in an- 
ticipation of encouragement from the civil power which, 
pervaded with the Zwinglian view of the supremacy of 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



Ill 



the State over the Church, was well pleased to have its 
authority fully recognized in all ecclesiastical matters. 

The doctrine in question, as stated in Art. 16 of the 
Confession of 1562, declared that " God manifests him- 
self as merciful, since He delivers and preserves from 
perdition all whom He, in his eternal and unchangeable 
counsel of mere goodness has elected in Christ Jesus our 
Lord, without any respect to their works ; as just, in 
leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they 
have involved themselves." The attempt was made by 
some to throw around this doctrine the shades of un- 
certainty. By others it was openly denied. All who 
rejected it, except the few who, though they could not 
subscribe to it, were too serious to treat any matter per- 
taining to religion in any spirit other than that of rev- 
erence, held it up to ridicule and contempt. 

The resistance to which the Reformed were impelled, 
was based upon their convictions. They clung to this 
doctrine, not for its own sake, nor because they claimed 
that even a believer, taught of God, was able to compre- 
hend it, nor because they were disposed to overvalue 
any symbol or form of merely human construction. 
They were determined to defend it because of its rela- 
tion to the free grace of God ; to the justification of the 
sinner through faith alone; to the entire gospel which 
loses its substance through the elimination of the truths 
comprised in this article of faith gathered from the re- 
vealed Word. They felt that they were bound to uphold 
it for the sake of maintaining the unsearchable ways of 
God which are His as well as those which men can 
search out, and for the unification of the Church for 
the establishment of which life and treasure had been 
freely sacrificed. 

When they who, marching under a banner inscribed 



112 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



with the words " Down with predestination" against the 
fortress of evangelical truth, were the avowed support- 
ers of the ideas that justification comes by meritorious 
faith ; that our race possesses a free will to do what is 
good ; that the believer cannot obtain assurance of his 
salvation ; and that the civil authority has the right to 
dispose at its pleasure of the affairs which pertain to the 
church only, the soldiers who held that fortress felt 
urged to man the walls with renewed zeal and vigilance 
and to improve every favorable opportunity for sallying 
out against the besieging army. The conflict was to be 
regretted for the reason that, on the part of the pro- 
fessed followers of the Prince of Peace who should have 
dwelt together in brotherly love, there was an exhibition 
of those passions which cannot be stirred up without 
expelling joy and peace in the Holy Ghost from the 
heart. But, much as this was to be regretted, it could 
have been expected. The doctrine which was made the 
rallying-cry of its opponents is always a stumbling-block 
to some. When it is torn out of its relation to other 
truths and presented in a deceptive light, men may be 
justified in denouncing it, for then it may lead to care- 
lessness, profanity and despair ; it may prove a pillow 
of ease for the flesh and a help to the devil ; it may 
become a tenet that makes God the author of sin and 
a tyrant, and a heartless warrant for the everlasting 
destruction of the infants whom death removes from the 
mother's arms. But, as set forth in the confessions of 
the French Reformed Church (Art. 12), the English 
Church (Art. 17), the Swiss Church (Art. 10), and the 
Church of the Netherlands (Art. 16), and ascribing all 
the glory of our redemption to God alone, it is an ab- 
surdity only to those whose every thought is not subject 
to the Word of the Lord. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



113 



The interest in the discussion pervaded all classes, 
from the highest to the lowest, and the spirit of it 
affected the entire religious, political, and social fabric. 
The universities, the pulpits, the fishermen's smack far 
oat on the sea, the harvest fields of the lowlands, huck- 
sters' stalls, and counting-houses were all the scenes of 
heated debate. Prince Maurice on the tented field and 
Olden-Barneveldt in his cabinet were as much occupied 
with this theme as the professors at Leyden, but the 
interest felt in the discussion of it extended also to the 
humblest mechanic at his bench, the smallest trades- 
man in his shop, and even the mendicant on his daily 
round. 

Illustrative of the share taken by the lower classes in 
the differences by which the theologians were divided 
into two distinct parties, is the fact that the captain of 
a fishing-boat fastened on his flag, underneath the arms 
of the house of Orange, the lines: 

" Sooner than to the Arminians yield, 
We'll join our Prince Maurice and take the field," 

and also the incident related by Professor Alting, of 
Heidelberg, to some of the delegates to the great Synod 
of Dordrecht. He said that one day in Amsterdam he 
saw a man on a cart driving through the street. Sud- 
denly the horse balked. " I know what ails thee," said 
the angry driver ; " thou, too, art an Arminian ; thou 
thinkest thou hast a free will of thine own, but I shall 
soon beat it out of thee ;" whereupon he whipped the 
poor beast unmercifully. In the same spirit a black- 
smith, accompanied by some rough men, once followed 
Episcopius for some distance through the streets of 
Leyden, exclaiming, "Such people should be hung!" 



114 EEFOEMED CHUECH m THE NETHEELANDS. 



An intense desire came to be fostered in the minds of 
all that the troubles, which for some time had disturbed 
the Church and the State — then mutually interpenetrat- 
ing powers — might be settled by a great National Synod, 
and the system of evangelical truth, as held by the 
Eeformed Church, authoritatively cleared of the errors 
which it was attempted to fasten upon it. Shortly after 
the Synod of the Hague in 1586, opinions had been 
uttered at variance with the doctrines and the polity of 
the Eeformed Church. When, then, Arminius, from 
his professorial chair at Leyden, openly exj)ressed views 
which were decided departures from the symbols of that 
Church, there was an eruption of the volcano whose 
fires had been smouldering for some time. Hence a 
true view of this defensive period requires that we look 
back at the lives of the forerunners of the errorists 
against whom the Synod of Dordrecht proceeded. 

In the description of that period, we propose to fur- 
nish, first, biographical sketches of Coornhert, the rep- 
resentative of a so-called undirected liberty of conscience; 
Koolhaas, the advocate of a civil control over the judg- 
ments of the church ; and Arminius, the evolutionist 
of the issues involved in the principles of these men and 
the leader of their adherents. We shall then give a 
view of the situation as it was at the death of Arminius, 
and after that treat of the great Synod of Dordrecht — 
with reference to the arrangements made for it ; its con- 
stitution (with a diagram showing the names, number, 
and relative sittings of the delegates); the questions at 
issue ; the proceedings against the Eemonstrants ; the in- 
cidents connected with the decision against them ; the 
doctrine established by the Synod ; its post-acta ; and 
finally, the adjournment and immediate effect of the 
meeting. 



• 

DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



115 



II. 

UNDIRECTED LIBERTY OE CONSCIENCE. 

The Bible is the only rule of faith which the Ee- 
formed Church recognizes. Bowing before the suprem- 
acy of the Divine Word, that Church still perceives the 
need of a Form of Accord which, comprising the results 
of the careful study of Kevelation by capable and de- 
vout men, may serve as a regulator of the instructions 
of ministers and teachers, in public and in private, to 
adults and children, from pulpits, in schools and in the 
home circle. In demanding of those who propose to 
assume official relations within her bounds, that they 
shall subscribe to this Form of Accord, the Eeformed 
Church does not fasten any chains upon their con- 
sciences. She recognizes the possibility of their coming 
to a change of views, and acknowledges their right to 
entertain it. Nevertheless she declares that if any one 
whose mind is so exercised, should ignore the covenant 
vows which he assumed by his signature, and give utter- 
ance to his diverging opinions, particularly at the time 
of his public ministry, she shall regard him as a sedi- 
tious person and deal with him accordingly. The 
Church is right in this. Her self-preservation requires 
that she should pursue just this course. 

Liberty of conscience in religion, the Eeformed 
Church prizes above all things. It was this which 
Philip II. of Spain, the enthroned representative of 
Eomish ecclesiasticism, withheld as long as he could. 



116 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



But this liberty is not inconsistent with that restraint 
which one voluntarily assumes, in joining an organiza- 
tion whose bond of cohesion is the common acceptance 
of certain yiews of the teachings of the Word of God 
concerning the fundamental questions of the Gospel. 
The mistake of some was that they formed erroneous 
conceptions of this true reformation-idea of Christian 
liberty of interpretation. They who made it, though 
worthy of all commendation because of many virtues, 
exposed themselves to the severe judgments of their 
contemporaries. 

Of those who were led astray in this manner was 
Coornhert. He was born at' Amsterdam in 1522. His 
father was a cloth merchant. On the occasion of a visit 
to Spain on his father's business, the young man was 
present at the execution of some heretics. The sight 
awakened the conviction that no church has a right to 
shackle the conscience of one who differs from its stand- 
ards. When nineteen years of age he married Cornelia 
Symons, who proved a very devoted wife. Her sister 
having married a nobleman, Coornhert became united 
with his household, but soon left his service. He 
sought successfully a livelihood in Haarlem by engrav- 
ing and etching. 

About this time he met a Baptist minister, Henry 
Nicolas, who claimed to be a deified man. He taught 
that he was more than Moses, because Moses only 
taught men to hope; and more than Christ, because 
Christ only taught men to believe; but, as for himself, 
he taught men to love, — which was more than either 
had done, and that hence he was the greatest. This 
visionary was utterly confounded in argument by 
Coornhert. 

While residing at Haarlem, Coornhert received the 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



117 



appointment of secretary to the mayor. In bis thirty- 
fifth year he applied himself so diligently to the study 
of the Latin and the Greek, that he soon became very 
proficient in those languages. His object was to read 
the ancient philosophers in the original. His learning 
became remarkable for it variety and extensiveness. 

In 1567, among the thousands who suffered for 
departing from the faith of Rome, he was imprisoned at 
the Hague. The danger that threatened him so wrought 
upon his wife that in her despair she mingled freely 
with persons affected with contagious diseases, in the 
hope of contracting them and so dying with her hus- 
band. For this Coornhert sharply rebuked her and 
bade her put her trust in God. During the next year 
he was liberated, but only as an exile, he having been 
banished by a decree of the Council of Blood. During 
some years of wandering he earned the support of his 
family by practising his art, sustained by the thought 
which he himself thus expressed: 

" Patiently we must bear the cross, 
And gently submit to every loss." 

In 1572 he was installed by the States of Holland as 
their Secretary. In this position he rendered himself 
so obnoxious to the Spanish government and their 
priestly advisers, that when Don Louis de Requesens 
issued in 1574 his decree of amnesty, Coornhert's name 
was excepted. After the pacification of Ghent in 1576, 
he once more settled in Haarlem as notary public. The 
reformation had triumphed, and its Calvinistic form 
had been established in the Northern Netherlands. 
But the teachings of the Swiss theologians, Calvin and 
Beza, on the subject of predestination, Coornhert could 
not wholly adopt. The views of some extremists, that 



118 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

those who differed from them on this point should be 
branded as heretics and slain, filled his mind with hor- 
ror. He regarded this as a terrible perversion of the 
very principle for which that costly and bloody war 
with Spain was waged. He himself, however, went to 
the other extreme and declared that a church which 
held Calvin's and Beza's views concerning predestina- 
tion, justification, and the killing of heretics, was no 
true church. To one who had left the Roman Church 
and joined the Reformed, and remarked that he knew 
as little about the latter as about the former, Coornhert 
said that it was doubtful which was the better church, 
— the one he had left or the one he had joined. For 
these utterances he was taken to task in 1578 by Ar- 
noldus and Donteclock, two pastors at Delft. By direc- 
tion of the States, a discussion was held at Leyden 
between the parties, in the course of which Coornhert 
said: "I hold as brethren all Cod-fearing people who 
who rest on the foundation of Christ, whether they be 
Palmists, Monks, Baptists, Reformed, or -Lutherans." 

An example of his liberality was afforded when the 
Roman Catholics of Haarlem got him to compose for 
them a petition to Prince William for liberty of wor- 
ship in the convents and in one of the principal churches 
of the city. On account of the part he had taken in 
this matter, he was cited to appear before the magis- 
trates and required to surrender the document. He 
gave it up readily, saying that he did not wish to be 
held responsible for it, much less to be considered as 
having an attachment for the Romish religion of which 
he did not approve; but that he deemed the Roman 
Catholics to have suffered great injustice, since the 
promises made to them were broken and bonds were 
laid upon their consciences. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



119 



In 1583 Coornhert came in conflict with the great 
Saravia, professor of theology at Leyden. The occasion 
was Ooornhert's publication of a pamphlet directed 
against the Heidelberg catechism, and, under the name 
of " A Test," dedicated to the States of Holland. The 
Government placed it in the hands of the professor of 
theology and a pastor, with directions to put its depart- 
ures from the teachings of the catechism in the form 
of theses, which they were to submit to Coornhert with 
the request that he would establish them from Scrip- 
ture; or, in case they failed to represent his views, that 
he would correct them. Coornhert replied that all this 
was needless, since the catechism furnished its own ob- 
jectionable theses: "It is impossible for a man per- 
fectly to keep the command to love God and our neigh- 
bor;" and, " We all by nature are prone to hate God 
and our neighbor." A debate was appointed to be con- 
ducted by Adrianus, Saravia, and Coornhert, in the 
presence of fifteen laymen of learning and political 
standing, and two notaries. It began on October 27, 
and continued till November 3, when Coornhert was 
summoned to Haarlem by the death of his wife. On 
November 28 it was resumed. The lectures — for they 
were delivered from manuscript — were so long that the 
States, deeming them to be interminable, ordered the 
debate to cease. For this occasion both the Orthodox 
and the Remonstrants claim the victory. 

When in the following year Coornhert attempted to 
locate in Delft, he was waited on by two police officers, 
with orders from the local magistrates that he should 
leave the city. He was informed that he would not be 
permitted to dwell within the bounds of the municipal- 
ity. In Gouda, whither he removed, he was taken ill. in 
the year 1590, with the sickness that ended in his death. 



120 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



While prostrated, a volume was handed him just pub- 
lished by Justus Lipsius, professor of ecclesiastical his- 
tory at Ley den, taking the ground that within any 
realm there should be but one religion, and that they 
who opposed it should be overcome by force. Ooornhert 
replied in a pamphlet entitled, "Proceedings against 
Heretics, and Strictures upon the Conscience," — thus 
to the very last battling for the species of liberty which 
he advocated. He died on October 29. His body 
was buried in St. John's Church in Gouda. The 
tourist, standing by his grave, may see, to the left, the 
magnificent window of stained glass, the chef-cVwuvre 
of Dirk Crabeth, representing Christ instituting the 
Lord's Supper; and, to the right, the equally grand 
window from the hand of Dirk's brother Walter, repre- 
senting the death of Heliodorus; — both scenes most 
splendid in coloring and delicate in outline. One of 
these windows was presented to the cathedral by King 
Philip II., and the other by Duke Eric of Brunswick. 

Around an engraved likeness of Ooornhert may be 
read the sentiment: 

" In Amsterdam I got my soul; in Gouda 'twas set free; 
I battled for the cause of right, God's Word, and liberty." 

Franciscus Junius described him as a man of pro- 
found intellect, but not favored by fortune. Hugo 
Grotius greatly appreciated his work. He was a man 
of pure and upright life. He was certainly a wonder in 
the age in which he lived, for his plea for liberty in re- 
ligion was many years in advance of his time. He 
failed, however, to see that his ideas would logically 
lead to anarchy, in that, while he remained connected 
with the Church from which he differed, he hesitated 
not to make a public announcement of his views, and 
thus scattered the firebrands of discord and strife. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



121 



III. 

POLITICO-ECCLESIASTICISM. 

From ics beginning the Keformed Church, while in- 
culcating respect for the civil powers ordained of God, 
and submission to them in matters pertaining to their 
jurisdiction, has denied their right to interfere with her 
in questions of doctrine and cases of conscience connected 
with religious opinion. All attempts at such inter- 
ference she is disposed to resist strenuously. The just- 
ness of this position, however, was not recognized by a 
government which desired to control the Church as 
subordinate. When, then, the men, who knew that they 
would be denounced by the Church for the opinions 
which they entertained concerning the true relation be- 
tween the Church and the State, invoked the aid of the 
political authority, the government was well pleased with 
the opportunity that was given to it to assert its suprem- 
acy. Thus a political aspect was acquired by the dis- 
sensions which had arisen in the land upon a purely 
theological question. Thus the conflict w r as made more 
complicated, the settlement of it was rendered more 
difficult, and a participation in it by all classes became 
almost inevitable. The Church was disposed to allow 
to the State a general supervision, extending to the ap- 
proval by it of ecclesiastical acts and to the enforcement 
of obedience to them. The State, however, was not 
satisfied with this. It required a share in the calling of 
ministers, in the appointment of consistories, in the 
11 



122 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

enactment of church laws, and in the decision of ques- 
tions of a theological character. But a political pope 
was a personage whom the Reformed Church did not 
wish to see arising within her bounds. 

The ability and the prominence of some of the up- 
holders of the claims advanced by the civil authority, if 
not giving weight to them, made them harder to resist. 
Olden Barne veldt urged them with all the power at his 
command, and the learned Grotius adduced arguments 
in their favor. Speaking of the right of magistrates to 
depose a minister, Grotius said that Solomon deposed 
the priest Abiathar, and that even Bellarmine admitted 
the deposition of many bishops of Rome by the empe- 
rors. "If the civil authority," he declared "has the 
right to banish any person from a country or city, it also 
has the right to forbid any person to hold office in it. 
The one includes the other. He who has power over the 
whole has power over a part. The civil authority has 
the right to depose not only in the way of punishment, 
but also as a precautionary measure — as when a people 
make use of a pastor for insurrectionary purposes — even 
against his will. If the civil authority have not this 
power, the State cannot be secure against disturbance." 
The same side of the question was taken by Louise de 
Ooligni of France, and by her son, Frederic Henry. 

The Church, however, was not destitute of eminent 
support. Prince Maurice of Orange, a far-sighted states- 
man and a consummate general, and Francois Van 
Aersens, the Minister of the States at the Court of 
France, of whom Eichelieu said that he was one of the 
three greatest statesmen of whom he knew, sustained the 
opinions of the Reformed Church as opposed to the arro- 
gance of the Government. 

The leader of this politico-ecclesiastical party was 



DEFENSIVE PEEIOD. 



123 



Casper Coolhaas. Born at Cologne in 1536, he was 
brought up in the Eomish religion. When converted to 
Protestantism, he joined the branch of it which repre- 
sented the teachings of Bucer and Melancthon. This 
was more than the simple result of local conditions, 
since his rejection of the views of the Genevan school, 
especially upon matters of church polity, appears to have 
been based upon conviction. In his thirtieth year he 
settled as pastor at Deventer in the Netherlands. But 
as at this time Alva and his Council of Blood were ravag- 
ing the land, he was soon compelled to abandon his 
ministry and to flee to the Palatinate. On October 3, 
1574, he preached his first sermon in St. Peter's Church 
in Leyden. He had been called to the pastorate of that 
church some months before, but the famous siege of that 
city occurring soon afterward, he was prevented from 
entering its gates. He must have been a man of con- 
siderable ability; for when, on February 8, 1575, the 
University of Leyden, afterward so justly renowned, 
was founded by Prince William as a reward to the citi- 
zens for their heroic defence of the city against the 
Spaniards, Coolhaas was appointed its first professor of 
theology. 

Four years later the dissensions began that resulted in 
the deposition of the pastor and professor, and were so 
hurtful to the cause of religion in the city, that, for a long 
time, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was neglected. 
The dispute arose upon the matter of the election of 
elders and deacons. Peter Cornelisson, one of the pas- 
tors in Leyden, took the ground that they should be 
nominated by those whose term of office was about to 
expire, and the names be submitted to the congregation 
for election, irrespective of the magistrates. Coolhaas 
agreed to the nomination, but required that before the 



124 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



names were submitted to the congregation, they should 
be laid before the magistrates for their approval and 
confirmation. 

The magistrates not only sustained Ooolhaas, but de- 
manded also that at each meeting of the consistory two 
of their own number should be present to represent the 
civil authority, but under oath not to divulge the pro- 
ceedings. The storm that followed shook the whole 
Church to its foundations. The States of Holland in vain 
attempted to calm it. By their orders the Classes of Ley- 
den, Rhineland, Delft, and others issued a pamphlet 
defining the relations subsisting between the Church 
and the Government. The con tending parties at Leyden 
did not concur in its sentiments. It contained the pro- 
vision that it is the duty of the magistrates to compel 
the despisers and the falsifiers of God's Word to leave 
the Church in peace, and to punish with imprisonment 
or fine those who disturbed it. Coolhaas replied in a 
pamphlet which, by advice of Balk, a pastor at Antwerp, 
was submitted to a company of eight men, consisting of 
four lay judges and four ministers. These men, unable 
to agree upon a conclusion adverse to either party, re- 
commended a reconciliation, the terms of which should 
be that the magistrates of Leyden who had deposed 
Cornelisson from his office, should restore him, and that, 
on the other hand, Coolhaas should acknowledge that he 
had gone too far. This attempt to bring the situation 
back to the status ante tellum of course failed. Coolhaas 
peremptorily refused to accede to this arrangement be- 
cause, he said, he was not conscious of having uttered 
anything that was wrong. 

While the issue of the conflict was pending, the Na- 
tional Synod of Middelburg was held in 1581. It con- 
demned the opinions of Coolhaas, as they appeared from 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



125 



his writings, not only on the subject of church polity 
but also doctrine, and required that he should confess 
his guilt. Coolhaas refused to submit to this decision, 
saying that the synod was not a judge but a party in the 
case, thus anticipating the j>osition taken by the Ee- 
monstrant delegates before the Synod of Dordrecht 
thirty-seven years later. The lay judges before spoken 
of, in the mean time sent to the States an official infor- 
mation of the decision to which they had come; and in 
December of that year the Government gave up the dis- 
position of the case to the ecclesiastical authorities — at 
the same time forbidding Coolhaas to exercise the func- 
tions of his office until he should have concurred in the 
reconciliation formerly urged upon him. 

As Coolhaas, still supported by the magistrates of 
Leyden, continued to refuse, he was excommunicated 
by the Provincial Synod of Haarlem in 1582. He was 
allowed an annual income of two hundred florins, and 
thirty florins for house rent. Of this he availed himself 
for the support of his invalid wife and six small children, 
until he found a secular meaus of income, when he 
declined the pension with thanks. At the Synod of the 
Hague in 1586 it was resolved that if he would subscribe 
to the doctrine relating to the grace of God in the sal- 
vation of the elect, and the personal responsibility, as 
regards their destruction, of those who are lost, he would 
be restored, and after six months would again be per- 
mitted to preach. Coolhaas did as required, but the 
opposition of his enemies again complicated matters. 
The mutual criminations and recriminations continued, 
and came to an end only by the death of Coolhaas, which 
occurred in 1614 in the seventy-ninth year of his age. 



126 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IV. 

ARMINIUS. 

The opposition of those who, during the years inter- 
vening between the Synod of the Hague (1586) and that 
of Dordrecht (1618), represented the views diverging 
from the tenets of the Reformed Church, was gradual 
in its manifestation. At first they concealed their 
opinions from the public. Then they expressed them 
partially and with hesitation. Next they boldly declared 
them. After that they asked that the symbols of the 
Church should be relieved provisionally of their authori- 
tative force; and finally, they claimed that the Confession 
and the Catechism should be subjected to revision. The 
utmost concession that was made, or could be made, 
was that every doctrine objected to should be considered 
at a National Synod. 

Under the leadership of Arminius, all those who dis- 
sented from the faith of the Reformed Church — called 
Remonstrants, from their having sent into the States of 
Holland and West Eriesland a libellum, or remonstrance 
against the doctrines of predestination and the persever- 
ance of saints — acquired a full organized strength. He 
was born of humble parents in 1560, in Oude water. 
TTitenbogart was three years older, and Gomarus three 
years younger than he. So nearly of age were the three 
men who opposed each other in the struggle that pre- 
ceded the great synod, and impressed themselves so 
deeply upon their time and upon future ages. 



DEFENSIVE PEBIOD. 



127 



Arminius was yery unfortunate in his youth. His 
home was burned and his nearest relatives murdered by 
the Spanish soldiers. Kind friends, however, came to 
his relief. After studying six years in the University 
of Leyden, he was sent, under the auspices of the magis- 
trates of Amsterdam, to Geneva. There he met Uiten- 
bogart, Beza, and Perrot. An excursion to Italy caused 
him much trouble. He was accused of kissing the Pope's 
toe and of corresponding with Bellarmine. The magis- 
trates of Amsterdam called him to account; but he 
cleared himself with ability. He made so favorable an 
impression that he was called to the pastorate in that 
city. As this occurred in 1587, he was then only in the 
twenty-eighth year of his age. 

Soon after his settlement the troubles began. The 
Consistory requested him to consider certain objections 
which for some time past had been raised against the 
Catechism. Arminius did so and found that his own 
views coincided with the opinions set forth in them. 
His departure from the doctrines of Geneva he declared 
in his lectures on the Epistle to the Eomans. His col- 
league, Plancius, opposed him. The friction, however, 
was of short duration. Through the efforts of the 
magistrates of Amsterdam, aided by his early friends, 
Taffinus and Uitenbogart, the harmony, at least for a 
time, remained undisturbed. 

In -1602, Franciscus Junius, professor of theology in 
Leyden, attempted to present the doctrine of predesti- 
nation in a milder form. "Predestination," said he, 
"does not concern man before God created him; nor 
man whom, after his creation, God foresaw would fall; 
but man who, at his creation, was furnished with the 
gifts necessary to the performance of good." Arminius 
entered into correspondence with him, and showed how 



128 REFORMED CHURCH IJST THE NETHERLANDS. 



such opinions drew after them an inevitable necessity to 
sin, and that consequently, beyond the respective tenets 
of Calvin and of Junius, there should be a third presen- 
tation of the doctrine relating to God's scheme of grace 
and judgment, according to which the priority should 
be given both to the creation and the fall of man. 

Shortly afterward the chair of theology was made 
vacant by the death of J unius. The Curators of the 
University considered the eligibility of a number of for- 
eign theologians. But finally they decided in favor of a 
Hollander. Arminius, they thought, was thoroughly 
acquainted with the condition of the Church in the 
Netherlands, a man of great intellect, of extensive 
learning, and of irreproachable conduct. His appoint- 
ment in 1603, though strenuously opposed by Gomarus, 
was supported by Prof. Thysius of Harderwyk, and by 
Uitenbogart, then the eloquent court-preacher of Prince 
Maurice. Arminius received an honorable dismission 
from his church and the Classis of Amsterdam, and was 
inaugurated as professor. 

The battle fairly opened on February 7, 1604. On 
that day Arminius in his turn lectured to the students 
on the doctrine of predestination. His diverging views 
on this theme he set forth in a number of written theses. 
The substance of them was as follows: 

That God, being a righteous judge and kind father, 
had from the beginning made a distinction between the 
individuals of the fallen race, according to which He 
would remit the sins of those who should give them up 
and put their trust in Christ, and would bestow upon 
them eternal life; also that it is agreeable to God that all 
men be converted, and, having come to the knowledge of 
the truth, remain therein; but He compels no one. 

The substance of the opinions of Gomarus, the col- 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



129 



league of Arminius in the theological department, was 
that God had appointed the persons who should be 
saved, and those who should be lost. From this it came 
about that some were drawn to piety and were preserved 
from apostasy. The remainder of the human race were 
left in a natural condition of depravity and in the guilt 
and condemnation of their sins. 

These respective statements, containing the germ of 
disagreement in regard to most of the fundamental doc- 
trines of the Christian religion, placed their authors in 
antagonism, and furnished the occasion for the division 
of the entire Church into two hostile camps. 

It is surprising that, while Arminius presented to his 
students the opinions already offered by such men as 
Coornhertand Coolhaas, rather than the doctrines of the 
Confession and the Catechism, he yet claimed to teach 
nothing at variance with those standards. This was the 
ground which he took when some deputies from the 
synods of North and South Holland called upon him, on 
June 30, 1605, for a conference, in order that the affair 
might be put in a proper shape to place before the Provin- 
cial Synod. After denying that, either at Amsterdam or 
at Leyden, he had taught anything against the Catechism, 
he dismissed them with these words : " If you in an official 
capacity address me, I cannot confer with you except by 
direction of the Curators. If as private persons, I am 
ready to discuss with you. If so doing Ave disagree, 
nothing can be done until a National Synod is held." 

The sympathy of the government with the Eemon- 
strant party, which was willing to concede to it the 
right of interfering with matters purely ecclesiastical, 
may be seen in the desire, signified by the States in 1606, 
that a National Synod should meet for the purpose of 
revising the Confession and the Catechism. The Synod 



130 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



of South. Holland of that year took alarm at this, and 
resolved that an application should be made for the sub- 
stitution of a milder term for the word "revising." 
That synod also directed its ministerial members to ex- 
amine the Confession and Catechism; and, if they found 
matters calling for special attention, that they should 
lay them before their respective classes, together with 
the arguments they had prepared. A committee of four 
was also appointed to request the professors of theology 
at Leyden to examine the standards, and, if they should 
discover anything in them from which they dissented, 
to refrain from expressing themselves until a National 
Synod had met. Arminius replied that he would sub- 
ject the standards to a careful examination; but, as to 
delivering an opinion, he would act as circumstances ap- 
peared to require. After much correspondence between 
Arminius and many pastors of the Eeformed Church, 
in the course of which the former attemj)ted to remove 
the suspicions that were expressed in regard to his hetero- 
doxy, he sent a request to the States, in 1608, for the 
appointment of a National Synod. Instead of comply- 
ing, the States declared that he and Gomarus should 
hold a conference in the presence of four ministers 
whom they would depute, and whom they would direct 
to report the result. G-omarus desired that the discus- 
sion should be before a Provincial Synod specially called 
for the purpose. When this was refused, he declared 
that he would not agree to the other arrangement, on 
the ground that Arminius and himself, being ministers, 
were subject to the synod; and also, that the matters in 
dispute were of sufficient importance to receive the most 
careful attention. The discussion was subsequently held 
before the Chief Council, which reported to the States 
that it could not perceive any difference of views in 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



131 



respect to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel; and 
that the two disputants should exercise toward each 
other the spirit of toleration. With this report Goma- 
rus was not at all satisfied, saying, that he deemed 
the opinions held by Arminius detrimental to the cause 
of truth. 

In the following year these celebrated men held 
another discussion in the presence of the States. Before 
it was completed, one of them was stricken down with a 
mortal sickness. Arminius died on October 19, 1609, in 
the forty-ninth year of his age. 

During his illness some persons applied to him the 
words in Zech. xi. 17, "Woe to the idol shepherd that 
leayeth the flock! The sword shall be put upon his arm 
and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up 
and his right eye shall be utterly darkened;" and also 
the words in Zech. xiv. 12, "And this shall be the 
plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people 
that have fought against Jerusalem, their flesh shall 
consume away while they stand upon their feet, and 
their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their 
tongues shall consume away in their mouths.''' Other 
persons, who admired him, by means of a transposition 
of the letters constituting his name — Jacobus Hermanius 
— constructed the sentence: Habui curam Sionis — I had 
a care for Zion. 

His funeral oration was delivered by Petrus Bertus, 
regent of the Theological College. In the course of it 
he said*: " There was a man in Holland whom those who 
knew him could not sufficiently appreciate. They who 
did not appreciate him did not know him well/' King 
James of England called him an enemy of God. Rich- 
ard Thompson praised him. Uitenbogart valued him 
highly. Festus Hommius accused him of holding So- 



132 REFORMED CHURCH EN THE NETHERLANDS. 



cinian views. Episcopius defended him. Grotius and 
Buxtorf honored him. Arminius, in his last will and 
testament, declared that he had before him the noblest 
aims, and was actuated by the purest motives. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



138 



V. 

THE SITUATION JUST BEFORE THE SYNOD OE DOET. 

The chair of theology in Leyden having been made 
vacant by the death of Arminius, in 1609, was filled by 
the appointment of Vorstius, professor in Steinfurt. 
This appointment was seemingly made in the interest of 
the Remonstrant party. Vorstius, though a man of 
great eloquence and vast learning, was not settled in his 
attachment to the doctrines of the Reformed Church. 
The University of Heidelberg had already expressed the 
opinion that he inclined toward Socinianism. King 
James I. of England protested against his election, as 
an injustice, an injury and a scandal to the Reformed, 
and as an enormous indignity to the Church of God. 
Perhaps as the result of the pressure brought to bear 
upon him, Vorstius soon retired to Gouda. Gomarus 
also accepted a professorship at Middelburg. Episcopius 
and Polyander, who stood related to each other doctrin- 
ally, as Vorstius and Gomarus had been, took their 
places. 

In the beginning of the year 1610 the followers of 
Arminius sent to the States of Holland a treatise, in 
which they set forth their belief in an election originat- 
ing in a foreseen faith, in the general atonement, in the 
power of the will unto good, in the insufficiency of 
divine grace unto conversion, and in the possibility of a 
fall from grace; in so artful a manner, that the States 
were persuaded to accept their statement as in accord 
12 



134 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

with, all the Reformed churches in Europe. They also 
requested that a Synod should be held under the super- 
vision of the Government. In August, the States de- 
clared that the opinions expressed in the Remonstrance, 
should provisionally remain free from censure ; and that 
the young men who were preparing for the ministry, 
should not have the doctrine of predestination pressed 
upon them beyond the statement of it in " the five 
points." 

In December, the Classes of North Holland and South 
Holland requested that a Provincial Synod should be 
called for the purpose of refuting the tenets of the Re- 
monstrance. The request was so far complied with that 
a conference was appointed consisting of twelve persons, 
six from each side, who engaged in a friendly inter- 
change of views. As a result of this meeting another 
conference was held in March, 1611, at which the Re- 
formed, who were admitted not as delegates of Classes, 
but as individuals, presented a Contra-Remonstrance. 

The States then urged the Reformed Church to tol- 
erate, in the spirit of love, a doctrine which she deemed 
detrimental to her highest interests. In May, 1611, 
they also resolved that, provisionally, the pastors should 
treat one another with Christian and fraternal affection, 
and, in their sermons, discuss the points in dispute with 
soberness and moderation. This resolution sounded 
pleasantly, but there was a partisan spirit back of it. 
In November following, they enacted that all who should 
not conform to the resolution of May, would be punished 
for resisting the ordained powers. This was really an 
imposition of silence upon the Reformed Church, and 
laying her bound and helpless at the feet of those whom 
she felt she ought to resist as the disturbers of her peace 
and the destroyers of her life. Perhaps this was per- 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



135 



ceived by the States themselves. In the following 
month, Decem-ber, 1611, receding somewhat from the 
stand taken in November, they declared that the teach- 
ings in the churches upon the atonement, justification, 
saving faith, original sin, the assurance of salvation, and 
perfection, should conform to those heretofore given in 
the Keformed Church. The Eeformed thereupon tak- 
ing heart, requested the Kemonstrants to make a plain 
statement of their opinions on these topics. When they 
refused, the States sustained them. 

In March, 1612, the States directed that the ordinance 
of 1591, framed by eight ministers and eight civil dele- 
gates, according to which the magistrates had the right 
to share in the ecclesiastical business relating to the call- 
ing of ministers and discipline, should go into effect; 
and in August they resolved that the cities which ob- 
jected to this ordinance should be urged by committees 
to conform to it. 

The Delft conference, Feb. 26, 1613, was another 
attempt at reconciliation between the parties. Arranged 
by Prince William Louis, it was composed of three Ee- 
formed and three Eemonstrant ministers. The former 
asked the latter if they could subscribe to the doctrines 
mentioned in the resolution of Dec, 1611. The Ee- 
monstrants inquired whether their "five points" could 
be tolerated by the Eeformed, and were informed of the 
readiness of the latter to discuss any mode of promot- 
ing mutual forbearance. Hence, in March the three 
Eeformed ministers were asked to prepare a form of uni- 
fication. They complied. They made a distinction be- 
tween holding a doctrinal view, and teaching it. They 
deemed it a matter of great anxiety, that those who had 
openly declared their dissent from the doctrines of the 
Eeformed Church, should still minister in that Church. 



136 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

They expressed a willingness that the Remonstrants 
should have their own opinions, but on these conditions: 
1. They must not publish them until a synod had de- 
cided concerning them; 2. They must openly acknowl- 
edge that, as to all other doctrines, the formulas were 
Scriptural; 3. They must submit to the judgment of 
classes and synods; 4. They must not prevent the hold- 
ing of National Synods. 

When the Delft conference failed to accomplish the 
end for which it had been held, the States, in the fol- 
lowing year, desired to adopt a Form of Accommodation. 
This was a compromise between the views of the Re- 
formed and the Remonstrants, and was to be acted on 
by all the ministers of Holland and West Friesland. 
Nothing was accomplished by this effort. 

In the beginning of 1614, the States, influenced by 
Olden-Barneveldt, declared that no one must be wise 
above what is written, or teach that God has created 
any man unto damnation, or that He forces men to sin, 
or that He invites any man to a salvation which He does 
not mean to give him, or that the unmerited grace of 
God in Jesus Christ our Lord is the beginning, the mid- 
dle, and the end of salvation. The Reformed answered 
that no one could be wrong who remained within the 
limits set by God's Word, and complained of the mis- 
representation of their doctrines. They called for a 
National Synod loudly. 

After this many of the Contra-Remonstrants aban- 
doned the Church and were regarded as schismatics. It 
must be admitted that they had been placed in an evil 
situation. They had even consented to a division of the 
church buildings between themselves and their oppo- 
nents. The Remonstrants, however, expecting soon to re- 
ceive all the churches, would not agree to this arrange- 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



137 



ment. In every case where a Eemonstrant preacher had 
been set oyer a congregation, the members who conld 
not receive his doctrines, held religions services in private 
houses and barns. In this they were opposed by the 
magistrates, who punished them with fines and banish- 
ment. 

Persecution provoked a stronger resistance on the part 
of the Eeformed. The States did not continue unani- 
mous in their views of the modes in which differences 
were to be settled. In March, 1616, the States of Hol- 
land voted that a mutual toleration should be practised, 
under penalty of being dealt with as disturbers of the 
public peace. Six cities, at the head of which was 
Amsterdam, objected to this act. Foreseeing the extent 
to which this resistance would grow, Olden-Barneveldt 
asked the Prince to sustain the States of Holland. 
Prince Maurice, who till then had concerned himself 
chiefly with the war, and was forced by this request 
openly to espouse one side or the other, declared that as 
Stadtholder he was under oath to protect the Eeformed 
religion. At a solemn meeting of the Chief and the 
Provincial Councils, the Chamber of the Rhetoricians, 
the Civic Magistracy, and the Committees from the 
several Common Councils, held at The Hague in Jan., 
1617, the Prince was asked to advise that body. He 
desired that the records of 1586, containing the oath he 
had taken when he assumed his office, should be brought 
in. When they had been read, he directed attention to 
the article in which the States united with him in bind- 
ing themselves, even to the last drop of their blood, to 
defend the Eeformed religion. "That religion/' said 
the Prince, "I shall maintain as long as I live." The 
attempt was made, but in vain, to persuade him that 
the "five points" did not affect that religion injuriously. 



138 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

From that time on, through persecution on the one 
hand and resistance on the other, it continually became 
more evident that the strife could not be settled amica- 
bly. Five provinces determined that a National Synod 
should be held. This measure received the earnest 
approval of many prominent persons in Holland and 
Utrecht. On ISTov. 11, 1617, a resolution to that effect 
was adopted by the States General, notwithstanding a 
strong protest from Holland, Utrecht, and Over-Yssel. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



139 



VI. 

THE ARRANGEMENTS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE 
SYNOD OF DORT. 

When the States-General resolved, on Nov. 11, 1617, 
that a synod should be held, the Eeformed were in the 
ascendant. Prince Maurice had openly espoused the 
cause of the Contra-Eemonstrants. Olden-Barneveldt, 
Grotius, and Hogerbeets had been imprisoned. The 
people at large expressed their disapproval of the tenets 
of the Remonstrants, in the songs they sang in the streets 
of the cities. As it was well understood that this Synod 
would fix the attention of Protestant Europe, the most 
careful preparations were made for it. In 1618, the 
States held several meetings, at which they provided for 
the details of the approaching Synod. At the meeting 
in October, the committee which had been appointed to 
estimate the number who might be expected to attend, 
reported that probably there would be 26 home divines, 
28 foreign divines, 5 professors, and 16 political dele- 
gates; that a suitable place of meeting should be desig- 
nated; that in the city selected for the meeting, proper 
accommodations should be prepared; that provision must 
be made for the conveyance of delegates from Germany 
and Switzerland; that the cost of the meeting of the 
Synod would probably be 100,000 florins; and that this 
sum should be assessed upon the several provinces, not 
only, but also, that each province should be recommended 
and urged to send the amount of its assessment by its 



140 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

delegates, "to be placed by them, immediately after their 
arrival, in the hands of the treasurer, to the end that 
the expenditure of the Synod might be provided for 
with promptness, and all confusion tending to the dis- 
honor of the land, might be avoided." 

The report was adopted. Dordrecht was selected as 
the place of meeting. m Thus the city acquired a world- 
wide reputation. Long after it shall have disappeared 
from the face of the earth, its name shall be regarded as 
one of the most important in the annals of ecclesiastical 
history. A committee, consisting of a member from 
each of the three provinces, G-elderland, Holland, and 
Zeeland, was directed to repair to Dordrecht, and to 
make all the necessary arrangements, " so that the whole 
affair might be disposed of in a decent and orderly man- 
ner." The next day, Oct. 17, was observed, by direc- 
tion of the States-General, "as a day of fasting and 
prayer, that God might bestow His Holy Spirit and 
grace upon the Synod that was about to meet." The 
States said that men should beseech God "that all things 
might be done in His fear, to His honor, and for the 
maintenance of the true Christian Reformed religion, 
and also, unto the conservation of the rest, the peace 
and the unity of the churches of this country, in general, 
and of every province, all cities and members of churches, 
in particular; so that the former intercourse, friendship, 
and concord might be restored." 

Among the first to arrive were George Carleton, 
Bishop of Llandaff, and the British theologians. They 
were received by the States, on November 5, with very 
great respect. The bishop, in the name of King James, 
addressed the Prince in an elegant oration. The Genevan 
delegates appeared on November 10. From France no del- 
egates arrived. The States had requested that two might be 



DEFENSIVE PEKIOD. 



141 



sent from that country, and the appointment had been 
made of two ministers from Guienne, but it was subse- 
quently withdrawn, owing, it is said, to Jesuitical influ- 
ence. The two delegates from Bremen were received by 
Gomarus, at Groningen, his intention being to escort 
them to Dordrecht. When they had arrived at Amster- 
dam, one of them, Orocius, happened to remark, " Ar- 
minius piae memoriae !" Gomarus became very angry, 
and exclaimed: " Quid piae memoriae! wio perditae!" 
He then rushed out of the house, and travelled alone to 
Dordrecht. 

Tuesday, November 13, 1618, was the day on which the 
great Synod opened. In the morning, religious services 
were held in the church in Dordrecht. On this occa- 
sion, and throughout the sessions, the Latin language 
was employed. Addresses were delivered by Balthasar 
Lydius, the pastor of the church, and by Jeremiah De 
Pours, pastor of the Walloon congregation at Middelburg. 
In the prayer that followed, enlightening by the Holy 
Spirit was sought, so that the truth which, leading men 
to God is better than a peace which separates them from 
Him, might be defended, and that the labors of God's 
servants might tend to the upbuilding of the fallen walls 
of the Christian Jerusalem. 

The home-delegates then proceeded to the lodgings of 
the foreign delegates, to conduct them in procession to 
" De Stad's Doelen," where the Synod held its sessions. 
The delegates from Gelderland escorted the British; 
those from South Holland, the members from the Pala- 
tinate; those from Zeeland, the Swiss; those from 
Utrecht, the members from Geneva; the Frisians escorted 
the delegates from Bremen; the members from Over- 
Yssel, those from Embden. Their arrival was an- 
nounced to the deputies from the States by Lydius and 



142 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



Festus Hommius. They were welcomed in the name 
of the States- General by Martinus Gregorius, of the 
court of Gelderland and by Hugo Muis Yan Holen, Mayor 
of Dordrecht, and conducted to the places assigned to 
them in the second story of the building. . 

After addresses delivered in behalf of the States by 
Lydius and Gregorius, the Synod organized. Josias Yos- 
bergen, an elder from Zeeland (there were 21 elders in 
the Synod) proposed that the president should be selected 
from a province involved less than the others in the de- 
bates by which the land had been distracted; and that 
one of the adsessors, or of the clerks, should be a Remon- 
strant. Through the influence, it is said, of Count 
William Louis of Nassau, the choice for president fell 
upon Bogerman, minister at Leeuwarden. 

He was a very remarkable man physically and men- 
tally. He had a fine presence — was tall, straight, and 
well proportioned. His forehead was high. His features 
were expressive and his eyes sparkling and piercing. 
A magnificent beard, of a light color like his hair, de- 
scended to his waist. He had a full voice, and his ges- 
tures, when he was excited (which was not seldom, for 
he was a man of strong passions), were very impressive. 
With intense convictions, he was impulsive and imperi- 
ous in his manner of uttering them. 

The adsessors elected were Jacobus Eolandus, minis- 
ter at Amsterdam, and Hermanus Faukelius, minister 
at Middelburg. The scribes were Sebastian Damman, 
minister at Zutphen, and Festus Hommius, minister at 
Leyden. The annexed diagram, which the writer pre- 
pared from an old engraving representing the Synod in 
session, may convey to the reader an idea of the relative 
position of the officers and the members and Remon- 
strant ministers. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



143 




25 



26 

In the following explanation, the figures in brackets 
indicate the number, in each case, of the persons who 
signed the proceedings of the Synod at its close: 



144 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



1. The political deputies (15). 

2. Their secretary. 

3. The English theologians (5). 

4. The theologians from the Palatinate (3). 

5. The delegates from Hesse-Cassel (4). 

6. The Swiss theologians (5). 

7. The Wedderaw correspondents (2). 

8. The theologians from Geneva (2). 

9. The theologians from Bremen (3) and Embden (2). 

10. The Netherlands Professors. 

11. Deputies from Gelderland andZutphen (4). 

12. Deputies from South Holland (5). 

13. Deputies from North Holland (5). 

14. Deputies from Zeeland (5). 

15. Deputies from Utrecht (2). 

16. Deputies from Friesland (4). 

17. Deputies from Over-Yssel (6). 

18. Deputies from Groningen (6). 

19. Deputies from Drenthe (2). 

20. Delegates from Walloon Churches (6). 

21. The President, Adsessors, and Scribes (5). 

22. Remonstrant Professors and Ministers who had been cited 

to appear before the Synod. 

23. The fire-place, having a large fire burning in it. 

24. "Windows. 

25. Standing-space for spectators. 

26. The door. 

From the centre of the high ceiling hung a pear-shaped 
cluster of lamps. Each member was provided with writ- 
ing materials. The partition separating the space as- 
signed to the spectators,, appears to have been breast 
high. 

The officers having been elected, the political depu- 
ties delivered their credentials and presented the arti- 
cles of instruction by which their conduct in the Synod 
was to be regulated. They were dated November 13, 1618, 
and were drawn up in fifteen articles. Those of the 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 145 

foreign delegates had already been placed in the hands 
of His Excellency and of the States. A letter from the 
professors and ministers of Geneva, relating to the relig- 
ions condition of the country and the work before the 
Synod, was then read. On resolution, all the acts of the 
States bearing upon the matter of convoking the Synod, 
were read, so that the delegates might know how they 
were expected to conduct themselves. The eighth act 
is of sufficient interest to be noticed. It permits minis- 
ters, -other than the delegates, to appear on the floor of 
the Synod, and, with consent of the Synod, to lay before 
that body any gravamina in regard to which they 
desired instruction. They were, however, to consider 
themselves bound to render a cheerful submission to the 
decision of the Synod. 
13 



146 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VII. 

DOCTBINAL QUESTIONS BEFOEE THE SYNOD OF 
DOBDKECHT. 

The Synod was not unanimous in its doctrinal views. 
In the first place, its members were divided into two 
classes, composed of those who, in the theological no- 
menclature of the day, were designated, respectively, 
Supralapsarians and Infralapsarians. The former, to 
whom Calvin, Beza, Gomarus, Lubbertus, Voetius and 
Bogerman, the President of the Synod, belonged, held 
to an unconditional election, anterior to the creation 
and fall of man. The latter, whose views were entertained 
by Thysius, Polyander and Walasus, said that this 
unconditional election was subsequent to the apostasy, 
which was foreseen. "The most of those," says Mos- 
heim, "who took the side of the Genevans, supposed 
that God only permitted the first man to sin, but did 
not decree his apostasy; others maintained that God 
from all eternity, in order to place his justice and his 
free goodness in the clearest light, had decreed the la- 
mentable transgression of Adam, and had so disposed 
everything, that our first parents could not avoid or 
escape the transgression. The latter were called Supra- 
lapsarians, in distinction from the former, who were 
called Infralapsarians." 

Then also, there were those in the Synod, though their 
number was comparatively small, who strongly inclined 
to the Kemonstrants. Such were the deputies from 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



14? 



Utrecht, who failed not to show yery decidedly which 
side, in the approaching debate, would haye the benefit 
of their sympathy. While these distinctions were not 
so sharply drawn as to preyent unity of action, they ex- 
erted a considerable influence in shaping the proceedings 
of the Synod relating to the settlement of questions of 
doctrine. 

The points in dispute upon which the Netherlands 
theologians, clerical and lay, aided by the foreign divines, 
were to decide, concerned election and reprobation; the 
death of Christ and redemption by it; the corruption of 
man and his conversion from it; and the perseverance 
of saints. 

The tenets of the Remonstrants, according to the 
historian, G-. Brand, were as follows: 

I. G-od from eternity determined to choose unto ever- 
lasting life all those who, through his grace in Jesus 
Christ, believe, and, unto the end persist' in faith, and 
in the obedience of it; on the contrary, He hath deter- 
mined to reject unto their everlasting damnation the 
impenitent and unbelievers. 

II. Christ has died for all, so that He procured by 
means of His death reconciliation and pardon for all; 
still, in such a manner that none except believers are 
actually in the enjoyment thereof. 

III. Man has not this saving faith in himself, nor 
from the power of his own free will, but he needs there- 
unto the grace of God in Christ. 

IV. This grace is the beginning, continuance, and 
completion, of man's salvation, so that no one can 
believe, or continue to believe, without this co-operative 
grace; hence, all good works must be ascribed to the 
grace of God in Christ; but, as regards the operation of 
this grace it is not irresistible. 



148 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

V. True believers haye through divine grace sufficient 
power to fight against sin and gain the victory. But 
whether through carelessness they might not depart from 
the holy doctrine, lose a good conscience, and neglect 
grace, should be clearly ascertained from Holy Scripture, 
before it could assuredly be taught. This fifth article 
was afterward altered, so that it expressed that all who 
once truly believed, could yet through their own fault 
stray from God and finally lose their faith. 

The Eemonstrants did not hold to the entire decree 
of election; since it implies not only that God will save 
those who believe, but also that He has chosen certain 
persons from eternity, to whom, in preference to others, 
He may in time give faith and perseverance. They 
declared that there is a distinction in election: one kind 
can be to faith only; and another to salvation. Accord- 
ing to them, the good pleasure of God in election con- 
sists in choosing faith as the condition of salvation, and 
choosing to account it instead of a perfect obedience. 
This election, they said, depends upon the right use of 
the light of nature, or, upon the possession of an honest 
and lowly disposition. It is made from foreseen faith, 
repentance, and sanctity. They held that some who are 
the objects of it, may perish; and they taught, that in 
this life there is no certainty of immutable election to 
glory, except from a mutable condition. As to reproba- 
tion, the Eemonstrants claimed that God did not decree 
from His own mere will to leave any in the fall of Adam; 
and that if God sent the gospel to one nation rather 
than to another, it was because in some way it was more 
deserving. 

In regard to the death of Christ, the Eemonstrants 
held that the Father designed it irrespective of a cer- 
tain and definite purpose to save any one particular soul. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



149 



The end of that death was that the Son might acquire a 
right to enter again into some covenant with men, either 
of grace or of works; also, the power of acting anew with 
men, and of prescribing whatever new conditions the 
Father willed, and the performance of which might de- 
pend on the free will of man. The covenant of grace, 
through the intervention of the death of Christ, con- 
sisted, they said, in the imputation of faith itself and of 
the imperfect obedience of faith. They held that all 
men are taken into a state of reconciliation, and are 
exempt from the condemnation of original sin. God, 
they claimed, willed to confer equally upon all men the 
benefits resulting from the death of Christ. If some 
shared in the remission of sin, rather than others, it was 
because they applied, by their free will, the grace which 
was offered impartially; and not in virtue of a special 
gift of mercy operating in them effectually. Christ 
could not, and did not, die for those whom God had par- 
ticularly chosen unto eternal life. For such that death 
was not necessary. 

On the subject of man's corruption and his conversion, 
the views which the Reformed had to combat were 
these : 

Original sin of itself does not suffice for the condem- 
nation of the entire race. Good habits and virtues had 
no place in the will of man when he was first created; 
hence they could not be separated from it in the fall. 
In man's spiritual death spiritual gifts are not separated 
from his will. That will was never corrupted in itself, 
but only impeded by the darkness of the mind and the 
irregularity of the affections. When the mind has been 
enlightened and the heart fixed, the will may be able to 
exert the free power implanted in it. Unregenerate 
man is not totally dead in sins, but can hunger and 



150 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

thirst after righteousness and offer the sacrifices of a 
broken heart. Corrupt man can so employ the light of 
nature, and the gifts within him which have survived the 
fall, that he can obtain greater grace. God therefore 
gives to all sufficiently and efficaciously the necessary 
means to the revelation of Christ. Faith is not a gift 
infused by God, but only an act of man. The grace by 
which a man is converted is only a gentle suasion. The 
efficacy of divine grace consists in this, that God prom- 
ises eternal blessings, while Satan, on his part, promises 
those which are only temporary. God does not so apply 
his power but that man can resist and thus hinder it. 
God does not effectually help the will of man before the 
will of man moves and determines itself. 

Nor were the departures from the doctrine of the Ee- 
f ormed on the perseverance of the saints less pronounced. 
The errorists said that this perseverance is not a gift ob- 
tained by the death of Christ, but is a condition of the 
new covenant to be performed by man antecedent to his 
justification; and that, while God provides the believer 
with power sufficient for persevering, it depends upon 
the freedom of the will whether a person perseveres or 
not. They claimed that true believers not only could 
fall from grace and salvation totally and finally, but in 
fact not seldom did; and that they could be guilty of the 
sin against the Holy Ghost. They denied that the per- 
severance of saints could be admitted, and they assumed 
that an assurance of salvation, from its very nature and 
tendency, was injurious to piety. Doubts concerning it 
were commendable. The faith of those who are saved, 
said they, differed from that of mere temporary believers, 
only in that it is of longer duration. They held that 
men could be regenerated repeatedly. They confessed 
themselves unable to perceive that the intercessory prayer 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



151 



of our Lord, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the 
Gospel of John, affords ground for the confident accept- 
ance of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints in 
their faith. 

Opposed to these opinions were the seven articles of 
the Contra- Kemonstrance. 

1. God from eternity chose some of the human race 
(which in and with Adam has fallen into sin and has no 
more power to believe and to convert itself than a dead 
man has power to restore himself to life) to receive sal- 
vation through Christ, while in His righteous judgment 
He passed by the rest to remain in their sins. ■ 

2. The children of believing parents and adult believ- 
ers must be considered as the elect until they give evi- 
dence to the contrary. 

3. In election, God has no regard to faith and conver- 
sion, but had determined in His eternal counsel, to give 
to the elect faith and perseverance, and thus to save 
them. 

4. Unto this end God gave His Son, whose passion, 
though sufficient for the sins of all mankind, tended 
according to the divine determination, to the redemption 
of the elect only. 

5. God caused the gospel to be preached to them, 
quickened it in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, so that 
they received the power not only to repent and believe, 
but to do so immediately and willingly. 

6. The elect, by the same power of the Holy Spirit 
without any co-operation of their own, are thus preserved 
that, though through weakness they may indeed fall into 
grievous sins, still they cannot wholly nor forever lose 
the true faith. 

7. True believers cannot thereby be seduced into a 
carnal peace, — since it is impossible that they who 



152 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

through Christ had a genuine faith implanted in them, 
should not bring forth fruits of gratitude, while the 
promises of divine aid and the exhortations of Scripture 
tend to work in them their salvation with fear and trem- 
bling, and to lead them the more earnestly to desire the 
help of the Spirit, without whom they could not do any- 
thing. 



DEFENSIVE PEEIOD. 



153 



VIII. 

THE PROCEDURE OE THE SYNOD OE DORDRECHT 
AGAINST THE REMONSTRANTS. 

The status in the Synod of the representatives of the 
party whose doctrines were to be examined and judged, 
was a question to the consideration of which the Synod 
was called at the very beginning of the proceedings in 
this matter. At first, it was proposed that they should 
be recognized as delegates. The proposition was imme- 
diately rejected. This action of the Synod, foreshad- 
owed, as will be seen, the result of the deliberations. 
It was resolved, through the influence of President Bo- 
gernan,.it was said, that thirteen Remonstrants, of 
whom Episcopius, one of the professors of theology at 
Leyden, should be one, must be cited to appear before 
the Synod within fourteen days. This number was sub- 
sequently increased to fifteen, when two of the Utrecht 
delegates left their seats, and joined their brethren with 
whose doctrine they sympathized. The citation of 
Episcopius was a surprise to the deputies from Utrecht. 
"What!" said they, "the States of Holland deputed 
him as a member of the Synod, and is he now to be sum- 
moned as though he were not a member?" The presi- 
dent peremptorily silenced them by rebuking what he 
called their love of contradiction, and by informing them 
that it was the desire of the States General that Episco- 
pius should be cited. 

An oath was taken by the members of the Synod that 



154 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



" in passing judgment they would regard as the rule of 
faith no human writings, but the Word of God alone, 
and would aim in all their transactions at nothing else 
than the glory of God, the peace of the church, and the 
conservation of the purity of doctrine." 

On December 6, 1618, a few of the Remonstrants, who 
were joined later by the remainder, announced their arri- 
val. They were welcomed as " reverend, famous, and ex- 
cellent brethren in Christ," and had places assigned to 
them at the long table in the centre of the hall. Epis- 
copius then declared that he and his associates were 
ready to begin the conference. To this word instant ex- 
ception was taken by Polyander, who received a general 
support. " The Synod," said he, " is not a party in the 
case, but a judge." Thus a conflict was started which 
led to the result that the Synod finally rendered a deci- 
sion upon the Remonstrant tenets, as gathered from 
their printed works, not as orally expressed. The posi- 
tion taken by the Synod was justified by the very terms 
of its convocation by the States General. The Remon- 
strants, however, would not yield their point. Had they 
done so, they would thereby have acknowledged the le- 
gitimacy of the final decision of the Synod, even though 
it should prove adverse to them. 

The next day Episcopius delivered an eloquent ad- 
dress. After expressing regret at the distracted condi- 
tion of the Church, he declared that he and his associates 
only desired peace. Their object was to present a milder 
form of the doctrines of predestination, and to advocate 
the subordination of the Church to the State, even in 
matters which concerned the former only. " We come," 
said he, "disposed to be overcome, as well as to over- 
come. Whatever be the result, good will come from it. 
He is not ashamed of being conquered who seeks to 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



155 



attain unto the truth, even at the cost of abandoning an 
error, and who aims at the peace of his conscience through 
the acquisition of the truth. He certainly is not worthy 
of participating in the counsels of this assembly, who 
has not come to it ready to acquit those to whom he 
does not feel inclined, and to condemn those even whom 
he holds in great affection. One may feel drawn toward 
certain great doctors and toward the entire Synod, but 
the truth should be precious to him above all. Amicus 
Socrates, Amicus Plato, arnica Synodus; seel magis arnica 
Veritas !" By this address, it was said, he tried to enlist 
the sympathies of the foreign theologians. 

In the morning of December 10, Bernardus Dwinglo, 
pastor at Leyden, read a paper in behalf of the Remon- 
strants, taking the ground that his party could not 
regard the synod in a judicial capacity, on the ground 
that all its members, except the foreign deputies, were 
their opponents. The president replied that there could 
be no other relation between the Synod and the Remon- 
strants than that between a judge and a person sum- 
moned to answer. After nine sessions occupied in the 
discussion of the vexed question, and some of these 
quite tumultuous, the Synod, supported by the civil au- 
thority, maintained its position; and the Remonstrants, 
acquiescing under protest, expressed their willingness 
to submit in writing their opinions on the topics treated 
of in "the five points/' Among those whose protest 
was the most decided, was Oarolus Niellius, pastor of 
the Walloon Church at Utrecht, who said that his breth- 
ren bowed before the civil authority and acknowledged 
the worth of the Synod; but that he did not perceive 
why they had not as much right to dissent from this 
Synod, as their forefathers had to dissent from the Coun- 
cils; or as their immediate ancestors, from the Council 
of Trent. 



156 EEFOEMED CHTTECH IN THE NETHEELANDS. 

The question of the status of the Eemonstrants in the 
Synod thus having been disposed of, a difficulty next 
arose in regard to the method of settling the doctrinal 
differences which the Synod, in its judicial capacity, was 
about to consider. The Eemonstrants brought in a 
written statement of their opinions. This, however, 
was not satisfactory to the Synod, which demanded an 
elaborate oral expression of their views. To this the 
Eemonstrants would not accede — except on the condi- 
tion that they should be heard in refutation of the doc- 
trines which they controverted. Of course this could 
not be entertained, since it implied that the Synod had 
met to confer with those whom it had cited, and not to 
pass judgment upon them. Moreover, the Synod had a 
wise regard to the peculiar circumstance characterizing 
its constitution, and to the fact that its decision was to 
be received by all belongingto the Eeformed Church as 
expressing its faith. As has been previously stated, the 
Synod was divided into Supralapsarians and Infralap- 
sarians. If the Eemonstrants had been permitted to 
offer their proposed refutation, the differences in the 
Synod itself would have become manifest, and for want 
of essential unanimity, the confidence of the Church in 
the Synod's decision would have been shaken. 

On December 29 the Eemonstrants declared that 
they would make in writing a clear statement of their 
opinions. They would present their views of election 
first, and then of reprobation. Then, having been in- 
formed of the opinions of the Contra-Eemonstrants, 
they would refute them. If anything further was wanted 
in their defence, they would receive whatever questions 
the president had to propound and answer them in 
writing. If the occasion should demand it, they would 
reply orally also, through one of the most capable of their 
number. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



157 



The synod would not consent to this. However, it 
sent a committee to The Hague with the request that it 
might be informed how to act in the matter. The com- 
mittee returned with the reply that the synod must in all 
respects dispose of the case before it as a judge. 

While these fruitless discussions were in progress the 
year 1618 came to an end. The people, thinking that 
the material heavens reflect in portents the tumults of 
earth, looked with profound interest at the comet then 
gleaming in the nocturnal sky. Jacobus Oats, or Father 
Oats, as he is affectionately called, voiced the popular 
thoughts in the lines which may be rendered thus: 

" Dear Lord, list to our prayer, and drive away from here 
The spirit of debate which fills all hearts with fear! 
The strife has been too long. O, bid the quarrel cease! 
Let peace reign in its stead, Thou blessed Prince of Peace! 
Let them who were estranged, in true accord now own 
The Spirit's gentle grace subduing hearts of stone!" 

On the last evening of the year the sessions were closed 
with a solemn sermon, preached by Polyander, from the 
words in Isa. lii. 7: " How beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that pub- 
lisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that 
publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God 
reigneth." 

The synod re-assembled on January 3, 1619. Each 
one of the Eemonstrants was requested to state whether 
the well-known " five articles" which had been delivered 
to the Lords the States of Holland in 1610, and which 
had been discussed and defended at the Conference in 
The Hague in 1611, were still regarded by them as ex- 
pressing their opinions. They objected to this proceed- 
ing, stating that it was in conflict with the liberty which 
they wished for the presentation of their cause in a 
14 



158 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



manner subservient to its interests. They then com- 
plained of the injustice of the treatment they received. 
The Synod, however, persisted in regarding them as the 
accused who were to be orally questioned and were re- 
quired to answer in the same manner. 

On the 11th the Synod declared that it would no longer 
seek to overcome the obstinacy of the Kemonstrants, but 
would judge of their opinions as gathered from their 
published writings. On the 14th of January the Ke- 
monstrants presented a treatise on the first of "the five 
points." When the 57th session had been reached, they 
were asked again whether they would obey the States 
and the Synod. They offered a written statement, sub- 
scribed by each of them present, that their consciences 
would not permit them to yield their positon. Accord- 
ingly, on Jan. 16, they were dismissed, and by no means 
in a gentle manner. 

The personal appearance of the President I have al- 
ready described. On this occasion he was in a state of 
violent agitation. His whole frame trembled with emo- 
tion. His eyes shot forth sparks of fire. "You boast," 
he cried, in a voice which rolled like thunder through 
the hall, " that many foreign divines did not refuse to 
grant your request. Their moderation arose from a 
misunderstanding. They now declare that they were 
deceived by you. They say that you are no longer 
worthy of being heard by the Synod. You may pretend 
what you please, but the great point of your obstinacy 
is that you regard the Synod as a party in the case. 
Thus you have long delayed us. You have been treated 
with all gentleness, friendliness, toleration, patience, and 
simplicity. Go as you came. You began with lies and 
you end with them. You are full of fraud and double- 
dealing. You are not worthy that the Synod should 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



159 



treat with you farther." Then extending his arms and 
turning the palms of his hands outward, he exclaimed, 
" Dimittimini ! Exitel Mendado incepistis, mendacio 
Univistis ! Ite /" 

The effect was startling. The Eemonstrants arose. 
" According to the example of my Saviour," said Epis- 
copius, (i I shall not reply. God will judge between 
me and the Synod in regard to the lies with which Ave 
are charged." Niellius, said, "From this injustice of 
the Synod I appeal to the throne of Christ." Naeranus 
said the same, adding, " There, they who now sit as 
judges themselves shall stand to receive judgment." As 
Hollingerus approached the door he cried, " Go out from 
the assemblies of the wicked. " 

A commission was then sent by the Synod to The 
Hague to acquaint the Government with the events of 
the last few days. The reply was that the expulsion of 
the Eemonstrants was approved, and that the Synod 
must proceed to the exercise of judgment upon the doc- 
trines of the Eemonstrants as these appeared in their 
publications. Prince Maurice, however, regretted the 
violence of President Bogerman. 



160 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IX. 

INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE CONDEMNATION OF 
THE KEMONSTKANT TENETS BY THE SYNOD OF 
DORDRECHT. 

After the expulsion from the Synod of the repre- 
sentatives of the Remonstrant party, it applied itself 
closely to the examination of the Remonstrant doctrines, 
as they had been set forth in various publications. A 
solemn sentence of condemnation was uttered against 
these tenets on April 24. Two weeks later it was made 
public. On the 6th of May the great Church of Dor- 
drecht was filled to overflowing by an expectant multi- 
tude which had come in from the surrounding country. 
After prayer by President Bogerman, the canons of faith 
adopted by the Synod, and also the sentence passed 
against the Remonstrants, were read. The latter was 
in part as follows: 

" Since some who have gone out from us under the 
name of Remonstrants, .... have undertaken to stir 
up, grievously and dangerously, the doctrines of the 
Reformed Church, and to bring forward injurious an- 
cient errors and to devise new ones, .... the Synod 
.... declares and judges that the ministers, who 
have conducted themselves as heads of factions and 
teachers of errors, are guilty and convicted of having 
scandalized religion and dismembered and offended the 
churches. As regards those who have been cited before 
this Synod, they are guilty, moreover, of intolerable 



DEFENSIVE PEBIOD. 



161 



obstinacy against the commands of the civil authority 
which is upheld in this Synod, and against the Synod 
itself. For this cause the Synod suspends the before- 
mentioned cited from their offices, and judges them un- 
worthy of any professorial positions, until such time as 
by an earnest conversion .... they shall have satisfied 
the Church 

" The others, of whom this National Synod does not 
know, it refers to the Provincial Synods, Classes, and 
Consistories, .... who shall take the utmost care that 
the church neither suffers damage in the present, nor 
have occasion to fear it in the future; that, in a spirit 
of prudence they search out those who are inclined to 
errors; that they .... depose the obstinate declaimers 
and factious " disturbers from their ecclesiastical and 
scholastic offices; .... that with all gentleness .... 
they seek to restore those who through weakness^ and by 
means of the wickedness of the times, have fallen or 
been led astray,* .... to the true and perfect unity of 
the church Moreover, this reverend Synod ear- 
nestly exhorts all ecclesiastical assemblies that they 
diligently watch over the flocks which have been en- 
trusted to them; that they betimes remove all novelties 
which are springing up in the church and root them 
out of this garden of the Lord; that they have a care of 
the schools and the regents, so that the Church and 
Fatherland may not afterward suffer great damage 
through the peculiar opinions introduced into the 
minds of the young." 

Formal thanks were then addressed to the States for 
having convoked the Synod, and the true doctrine was 
commended to their protection. With a prayer of 
thanksgiving the exercises closed and the throng dis- 
persed. 



162 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

About two months later the sentence of the Synod 
against the Remonstrants was confirmed by the States. 
By its enforcement about two hundred ministers were 
deposed. They were enjoined to lead a quiet unofficial 
life, in which the States undertook to provide for their 
support, whether at home or abroad. Seventy signed 
the act of deposition. Eighty who rebelled were trans- 
ported across the boundaries. All persons who held the 
Remonstrant doctrines were positively forbidden to hold 
any meetings. 

The presence of the foreign theologians being no 
longer deemed necessary, their departure was attended 
with special ceremonies. On the 9th of May the Synod 
held a public session. Martinus Gregorius offered a 
devout prayer in which he praised God for the help 
which He had so far vouchsafed to the Synod. Then 
addressing the foreign theologians in the name of the 
States General, he made due acknowledgment to them 
for their efficient counsel and aid. 

"Fathers," said he, "farewell. The States praise 
your faithfulness and thank you for it. They wish that 
the work that has been done may produce such excellent 
fruit that fear and envy may flee. They unanimously 
desire that henceforth a fraternal spirit may prevail. 
Farewell, Fathers. The pastors of the churches desire 
to see, as the result of your labors, God's enemies van- 
quished, the Church of the Netherlands freed from con- 
tentions. Fathers, farewell. We are pleased with what 
you have done. We see in the conclusion to which you 
have come, an evidence of grace, the peace of the people, 
a bond of friendship, a haven of rest, the quiet of the 
land. Nevertheless — pardon this word — it is the closing 
wish of our prayer that God would here so prosper His 
cause that we shall not see you again in this country." 



DEFENSIVE PEEIOD. 



168 



At the conclusion of this address the President also 
addressed the foreign theologians, thanking them in the 
name of the Synod. In the evening the Synod sat down 
to a splendid banquet given in honor of the foreign theolo- 
gians, by the city of Dordrecht, at a cost of over twelve 
hundred florins. Some of the Remonstrants deemed it 
unseemly that these festivities were held on Ascension- 
day. Others complained that musicians had been hired 
from other cities, and that the guests were entertained 
with vocal music furnished by a female choir, which 
was separated from the banqueters by means of a screen. 
"The fathers of the Synod," said a Remonstrant his- 
torian, "washed from their consciences with Rhine 
wine the burden of the deposition of so many preachers, 
and eased their minds by means of sweet melodies. 
Several foreign delegates, even some of the most digni- 
fied, indulged so freely that, as they walked homeward, 
their gait was rather unsteady." 

On the following day each foreign divine received as a 
gift from the States General, a gold medal suspended 
from a golden chain, to the value of two hundred 
florins. On one side of it was a representation of the 
Synod, and the words Asserta Religione; on the other, 
the figure of Mount Zion, with a temple on the summit 
assailed by the four winds of heaven; encircling the 
mountain were the words Erunt Sicut Mons Zion. 

The Synod was honored, but it also endured evi- 
dences of malice. A box was sent containing the differ- 
ent articles associated Avith the crucifixion of our blessed 
Redeemer, such as spikes, pincers, dice, and play- cards, 
intended to intimate that the Synod had once more put 
the Lord to shame. The Synod, presuming that this 
box might have come from some of the Remonstrants, 
summoned the wife of a certain Jacques Cayonkele to 



164 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



appear before a committee consisting of the pastors 
Deodatus and Tronchinus of Geneva, and La Vigne of 
the Walloon Church at Dordrecht. She, however, pro- 
tested that she knew nothing of the matter. The 
Remonstrants declared that they highly disapproved of 
the act. 

It is said that on the 19th of January, 1619, there 
was nailed on the door of the hall where the Synod held 
its sessions a satirical verse which the writer translates: 

• When the Synod of Dordrecht began its great meeting, 
The Devil was ready to give it his greeting. 
In the nethermost realms he produced a sensation 
By kindling bright lights for an illumination. 
There never before had been such a convention 
On the face of the earth; nor had even mention 
Been made of a council the gist of whose teaching 
Was, God is the author of evil; and preaching 
That God orders men to do what they never 
Are able to do, and that then He forever 
Inflicts on their spirits His wrath without measure, 
Merely because of His simple good pleasure. 
The Devil well knows that the Lord is not dealing 
With men in this manner, and hence he is reeling 
With joy, to consider the Synod so daring 
As to call God a tyrant; and to utter so glaring 
A falsehood, as that, while He binds with a fetter 
The free will of all, He elects one, no better 
Than others, for grace and a blessed salvation ; 
While the rest He consigns to a sure condemnation. 
Thus Satan is glad as he thinks of the number 
Of souls which this doctrine will lock up in slumber. 
To Calvin he feels under great obligation; 
And the Synod will know of his appreciation 
Of that which it did for his cause by its show, 
When its members have come to the regions below. 

When, on the 9th of May, the States expressed their 
thanks to the foreign theologians, they invited them, 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



165 



before their departure, to visit The Hague. Those who 
accepted the invitation, beheld a terrible tragedy. 
Four days later, on May 13, 1619, the head of Olden- 
Barneveldt rolled on the scaffold beneath the axe of the 
executioner. One of the spectators was Deodatus, of 
Geneva. As the head of the aged statesman fell, the 
Swiss pastor remarked: "The Canons of Dordrecht 
have shot it off." Thus mutually inter-penetrating, in 
the opinion of one man at least, were political expe- 
dients and theological conclusions. 



166 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



X. 

THE DOCTKINES OF THE SYNOD. 

Befoee the announcement, in the great church of 
Dordrecht, of the sentence against the Remonstrants, and 
the departure of the foreign theologians, the Synod ap- 
plied itself with energy to express clearly and finally the 
faith of the Reformed Church. Each member submit- 
ted his opinion on "the five points'" in writing. The 
number of the treatises, which were by no means short, 
and the differences between the Supralapsarians and the 
Infralapsarians promised a long discussion. The united 
adoption of a rule of faith seemed at a very remote dis- 
tance. Some even affected to believe that the Synod 
would remain in session tAvelve years. 

In the mean time President Bogerman had prepared, 
with the aid of the adsessors Rolandus and Faukelius, a 
statement, in which the errors of the Remonstrants and 
the faith of the Reformed Church were set forth with 
distinctness. This paper was read to the Synod during 
the 126th and the 127th sessions. After the reading, the 
President stated that he and those who had been engaged 
with him in this work, would be glad to entertain any 
comment upon the subjects treated in the paper, and es- 
pecially in regard to the expression of points of doctrine. 
To this course the political delegates objected, not deem- 
ing it wise to entrust this important work to the hands 
of a few, still less to one man, however zealous, capable, 
and devout. 

The Synod, therefore, at their suggestion appointed a 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



167 



committee to draw up a statement of the faith of the 
Eeformed Church, within as short a time as possible, 
consistent with the gravity of the work. The committee 
consisted, besides the President and the adsessors, of 
George Oarleton, Bishop of Llandaff; Abraham Scultetus, 
professor at Heidelberg; Johannes Deodatns, minister 
at Geneva; Johannes Polyander, Professor at Leyden; 
Antonius Walaeus, professor at Middelburg; and Jacobus 
Trigland, minister at Amsterdam. The committee 
wasted not a moment. The report was presented after 
three weeks. The Canons proposed did not meet at first 
with universal satisfaction. It was said the doctrine was 
set forth in too mild a form. The expression " man was 
lost through his own fault " was generally dissented 
from. Fnally, after a few alterations, the report was 
adopted and the Canons were subscribed by the officers of 
the Synod, by the professors of theology, and by the for- 
eign and the home delegates. 

These Canons, entitled " Heads of Doctrine," corre- 
spond in number to "the five points" of the Remon- 
strance. They relate to predestination ; the death of 
Christ and redemption; the corruption of man; his con- 
version to God and the manner of it; and the perseverance 
of the saints. 

The first Head was presented in eighteen articles. It 
declared that election is not conditional. Faith is the 
gift of God. The cause of unbelief is not in God but in 
man. The doctrine of predestination, presented for the 
honor of God and the comfort of his people, must be 
presented with a proper regard to time and place. It 
should be dwelt upon with a discerning spirit, and the 
discussion of it should never be characterized by a curi- 
ous inquisitiveness into the ways of God. To those who 
use the means by which God has promised to work faith 



168 EEFOEMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

in us, the doctrine is not a dreadful one ; nor has it any 
terrors for those who earnestly desire to repent before 
God. It is a fearful doctrine to those who remain at- 
tached to the world and the flesh. Nearly all these 
articles are fortified by appropriate citations from Scrip- 
ture. 

Half as many articles were deemed sufficient for the 
announcement of the Head relating to the nature and 
the extent of the atonement. God is supremely just as 
well as merciful. In our inability to satisfy that justice, 
God gave his Son as a surety for us. The death of 
Christ is abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the 
whole world. The value of that death is in the personal 
dignity and the qualifications of the Sufferer. The call 
to repent and to believe the Gospel must be preached to 
all the world. The destruction of any one in unbelief is 
to be imputed wholly to himself. No one is saved through 
any merit of his own. It is the purpose of God the 
Father that the saving efficacy of the death of his Son 
shall extend to all the elect and to them only, and this 
purpose has been and will be accomplished notwithstand- 
ing all opposition. 

The subjects of the third and fourth Heads, the cor- 
ruption of man and the manner of his conversion, are 
disposed of in seventeen articles. Corruption is derived 
from Adam, not by imitation but by the propagation of a 
vicious nature. All men are by nature the children of 
wrath, incapable of any saving good, prone to evil, dead 
in sin. There remain in man, since the fall, some glim- 
merings of natural light; but these cannot bring him to 
true conversion. That conversion God performs by the 
operations of his Holy Spirit. God calls men by the 
Gospel: if any refuse to come and be converted, the 
fault is in themselves. If any obey and are converted, 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



169 



this is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise of free 
will, but wholly to God who confers faith and repent- 
ance. The regenerating Spirit infuses new qualities 
into the will, quickens it, renders it good, obedient and 
pliable, and strengthens it. Regeneration is a new cre- 
ation, a resurrection from the dead. It is a supernat- 
ural work. The manner of its operation cannot be fully 
comprehended in this life. The grace of regeneration 
does not treat men as senseless stocks and blocks. It 
does not take away their wills or do violence to them. It 
spiritually quickens, heals and corrects, and at the same 
time sweetly and powerfully bends them. As in prolong- 
ing and supporting natural life God uses means, so the 
supernatural operations of God in regeneration do not 
exclude the use of the Gospel, which is the seed of re- 
generation and the food of the soul. 

The fifth Head, the Perseverance of the Saints, was 
set forth in fifteen articles. Those whom He called and 
regenerated, God delivers from the dominion of sin, but 
not altogether from the body of it, so long as they re- 
remain in this world. Hence they are troubled with 
many infirmities. By reason of these indwelling sins, 
the converted could not persevere in grace if left to their 
own strength. But the faithful God preserves them in 
it. The converted, when they neglect watching and 
prayer, often comply with the lusts of the flesh. Some- 
times they are drawn into enormous sins, by which they 
offend God and grieve the Holy Spirit. The merciful 
God does not wholly withdraw his Spirit from them, 
but, according to his unchangeable purpose of election, 
He renews them to a sincere repentance. The assur- 
ance of the preservation of the elect to salvation springs 
not from any peculiar revelation contrary to, or inde- 
pendent of, the Word of God, but from faith in God's 
15 



170 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

promises, from the witness of the Spirit with our spirits, 
and from a holy desire to preserve a good conscience 
and to perform good works. Believers struggle with 
doubts, and God makes a way of escape. The certainty 
of perseverance does not make believers carnally secure, 
but serves as an incentive to the serious and constantly 
calls for gratitude. It does not produce laxity in be- 
lievers, but renders them much more solicitous to con- 
tinue in the ways of the Lord. 

The Synod then exhorted all who call upon our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, not to judge of the faith of the Eeformed 
from the slanders that have been heaped up against it ; 
nor, from the utterances of ancient and modern teachers, 
which were frequently misunderstood or perverted by 
those that heard them; but from the public Confession 
of the Church in those Canons. It also urged all minis- 
ters to refrain from such expressions as go beyond the 
limits imposed by Holy Scripture. 

The preparation of these Canons which contain the 
formulated statement of the faith of the Eeformed con- 
cerning the doctrines controverted by the Eemonstrants, 
was the chief work of the Synod, accomplished in 153 
sessions. But there were other matters of great impor- 
tance to which it gave careful attention. The legisla- 
tion upon these is known as the Post- Acta. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



171 



XI. 

THE POST-ACTA OF THE SYNOD OF DORDRECHT. 

The proceedings of the Synod after the departure of 
the foreign delegates, are known as the Post-Acta. They 
commenced at the 155th session, and were continued 
through the 180th, when the final adjournment took 
place. At the suggestion of the Synod of Leyden in 
1668, and by direction of the States-General, dated May 
4, 1669, and of the Synod of Schoonhoven, held in the 
same year, they were translated from the Latin into the 
Dutch. Under the supervision of four Deputati Synodi 
of the Synod of South Holland, they were printed in 
that language in the year 1669. They relate to a variety 
of interesting topics, such as church ordinances, the Jus- 
Patronatus, church visitation, the call to the ministerial 
office, correspondence between magistrates and consis- 
tories, feast-days, the hymns to be sung in church, the 
baptism of Roman Catholics, the observance of the 
Sabbath, the marriage relation, college professors, the 
form to be signed by new ministers, the baptism of the 
sick and of adults, the visitation of the sick, a new 
translation of the Bible, foreign missions, profanity, 
ministers' salaries, the liturgy, and other matters. 
Some of these had received attention at the earliest 
sessions of the Synod. As has been stated heretofore, 
the Synod directed the representatives of the Remon- 
strants to appear before it within two weeks from the 
day of their citation. During these two weeks the Cate- 
chism and the proposed new translation of the Bible had 



172 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

been considered. At that time the former question was 
finally disposed of, and therefore the action of the 
Synod in regard to it properly has no place among the 
Post- Acta. The legislation npon it, however, is here 
mentioned for the great interest that attaches to it. 

The Heidelberg Catechism was declared by the Synod 
to be accordant in all respects with the Word of God. 
It was called an admirably composed, short compendium 
of the orthodox Christian doctrine; wisely adapted to 
the comprehension of tender youths, and also to the 
more elaborate instruction of adults. Besides the work 
in its original form, approval was given to two other 
arrangements, to suit the capacities of pupils of different 
ages. The one for small children contained the Creed, 
the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the 
institution of the Sacraments, with short prayers and 
simple questions; the other, the Catechism simplified. 

The Synod issued directions concerning the instruction 
that was to be imparted from the Catechism, so that 
persons of an advanced age, as well as the children and 
youths, might secure a sufficient knowledge of the cardi- 
nal doctrines of the true religion. 

In the first place, parents were exhorted to enjoin the 
study of the Catechism upon all the household, and dili- 
gently to teach therein the fear of God and true piety. 

Then, also, such instruction was to be given in the 
day-schools. The Synod urged the establishment of 
schools, not only in the cities, but also in the villages 
where they did not previously exist. It requested the 
magistrates to give the schoolmaster an honorable com- 
pensation, so that the children of the poor might secure 
their education gratuitously. None were permitted to 
ieach, except such as had the testimony of a genuine 
faith and a pious life. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



173 



But the greatest pressure was laid upon the ministry. 
Every j:>astor was required to preach from the Catechism 
on each Sabbath afternoon. The discourse was to be 
short and adapted to the capacities of all, whether old 
or young, educated or ignorant. It was added that a 
neglect of this duty would expose the offender to ecclesi- 
astical punishment. For this action there seemed to be 
a special call, from the fact that in some parts of the 
land the custom of preaching from the Catechism, on 
Sunday afternoons, was fast falling into desuetude. In 
some cases the pastor had become careless. In others, 
excuses were made that when a minister had charge of 
two parishes, he could not preach from the Catechism in 
both at the same time. Some also pleaded the unwill- 
ingness of the people to give up their recreations on 
Sunday afternoons, for the sake of attending catechetical 
preaching. 

The advice of the foreign delegates having been asked, 
some of them replied that, in their countries, the neglect 
of the people to be present at catechetical instruction, 
was punished with fine and imprisonment. When they 
were asked what course was pursued in their respective 
countries, so as to secure the acquisition, by the young 
people, of the contents of the Catechism, the delegates 
from Switzerland and Hessel said that whenever in their 
country a young couple desired to marry, they were re- 
quired previously to appear before the pastor, to be ex- 
amined in the Catechism. If their knowledge was found 
to be defective, their wedding was to be postponed until 
they showed more familiarity with it. 

A new translation of the Bible had been resolved upon 
at the 6th session. At the 177th session a letter to the 
States was prepared, asking for their consent to the 
enterprise, and aid in it. Long ago the work had been 



174 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



committed to St. Aldegonde, together with Warnerus 
Helmichius and Arnoldus Cornelius, pastors at Delft 
and Amsterdam. But before it had been begun, all three 
were removed by death. 

The Synod entrusted it to three scholars for each Tes- 
tament, under the supervision of overseers appointed by 
the respective States, to insure a faithful rendering. 
Not long after this Synodical resolution, two of these 
six scholars died, and their places were filled by the 
States. The committee did not fairly get to work until 
1625. The Synod had given it some hints in refer- 
ence to certain particulars. John Hales, who had been 
sent by the King of England to take notes, relates that 
the Synod was a long time in determining whether the 
pronoun, in addresses to God, should be rendered in the 
singular or the plural form. The latter Was preferred. 
The Synod also resolved that the Hebrew word Jehovah 
should be rendered Lord, and printed in capital letters. 
Elohim was to be translated God. Hebrew proper names 
were to be retained, and in some cases their meanings were 
to be given in the marginal notes. Topographical and 
chronological facts were to be added, and genealogical 
registers prepared. All pictorial ornaments on the title- 
page and at the beginnings of chapters, that might give 
offence, were to be carefully avoided. 

In 1633 the Old Testament was completed. During 
the following year the New Testament was finished, and 
also the Apocryphal books. Upon the latter, however, 
the Synod did not require the same care to be bestowed 
as upon the canonical Scriptures. 

Before the translation was completed two more mem- 
bers of the committee died, but their places were not 
tilled. Indeed, the great work was done at Leyden under 
very painful circumstances. At that time the city was 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



175 



devastated by a teirible plague, by the ravages of which 
20,000 people perished, " We were permitted to labor," 
one of the translators wrote, "in the enjoyment of good 
health, and in a holy cheerfulness of spirit, though we 
were located in the neighborhood of a cemetery to which 
we often saw one hundred corpses conveyed in a single 
day." 

On October 10, 1635, the translation was ready for 
the press, and two years later the first printed edition 
saw the light. By most scholars it was regarded as ex- 
act, its language excellent, and the marginal notes as 
very helpful. Even the Remonstrants were pleased with 
it. Some of the Reformed said they saw in it the taint 
of heterodoxy. The city of Amsterdam especially disap- 
proved it. It was many years before the Staten-bybel, as it 
was called because made under the auspices of the States- 
General, replaced the Bible formerly in use. The manu- 
scripts of the translation were carefully preserved. It 
was customary for the archives of the early synods to be 
examined triennially by committees appointed by each 
of the Provincial Synods. After 1641 the same was done 
with these manuscripts, until 1794, when the practice 
was abandoned. 

The Synod thoroughly revised the liturgy. In 1611 
another edition had appeared of the versification of the 
Psalms by Dathenus. Among the liturgical forms in this 
volume is a prayer for the divine blessing upon daily 
labor; of this prayer, however, there are no vestiges 
after the great Synod of Dort. Nearly the same fate 
befell the form for the consolation of the sick, which is 
now but seldom used, if at all. It was composed, say 
some, by Caspar Van Der Heyden, who presided at the 
synod of Embden (1571); others say, on better grounds, 
by Cornelius Van Hill, who during 1589-1598 was pas- 



176 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

tor in Leyden. It was added by the Synod of the Hague 
(1586). It was full of divine truth and spiritual sweet- 
ness. How well adapted it was to the soul, in the extreme 
hour, even under the most trying circumstances, may be 
inferred from the fact that the great John of Olden- 
Barn e veldt desired it to be read to him by Hugo Bey- 
erus, pastor in the Hague, just before he was led out to 
execution; declaring that in the confession of faith 
therein contained he was willing to die. 

The Synod also made some additions to the liturgy. 
They consisted of the prayer before consistorial meeting; 
the prayer before the meeting of the deacons; and the 
form for the baptism of adults, — composed about 1604. 
For the last a need had arisen in the fact that numbers 
of the Baptists had sought a union with the Reformed 
Church. The form was given a place in the liturgy 
between the offices for the administration of infant- 
baptism and the administration of the Lord's Supper. 

The Synod not having completed the revision before 
its adjournment, committed it to Festus Hommius, pas- 
tor at Leyden. By him it was finished in 1621, and 
laid before the Synod of South Holland, at Rotterdam. 
By that body it was submitted to other Provincial 
Synods, and then published. 

The next revision occurred at Schoonhoven in 1734, 
when the language was made to conform to the version 
of the annotated Bible prepared by direction of the 
States- General. 

In 1776, at Delft, it was proposed to revise the liturgy 
the third time. The design was "to purify it from all 
antiquated words, expressions and phrases." As the 
churches of Zeeland and Drenthe were not accustomed 
to send delegates to the Provincial Synods of the North, 
and their support was desired, attempts were made to 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



177 



ascertain their opinion. But, after all, the project was 
abandoned, in the fear lest the execution of the plan 
should result in disturbing the peace of the Church." 

The Confession of faith was also revised and approved 
by the Synod of Dordrecht. The foreign delegates called 
it an orthodox and a saving Confession. They exhorted 
the home delegates to preserve it unadulterated until 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. A unanimous as- 
sent was given to their exhortation. 

The Synod urged the States- General to provide for the 
establishment of foreign missions in the East India pos- 
sessions, and in all countries which were destitute of 
the knowledge of the true God, and to which God has 
opened a path. 

A form of subscription was composed, by which minis- 
ters, professors of theology, regents and under-regents 
of colleges, and all teachers should solemnly promise to 
set forth, diligently and faithfully maintain, the doc- 
trine contained in the Confession, the Catechism and 
the Canons of Dordrecht, without undertaking anything 
in opposition to them, either directly or indirectly; but, 
on the contrary, declaring that in all things they are con- 
formable to the Word of God. 

In regard to Church ordinances there had formerly 
been much dispute. The Synod desired that the 
different provincial Church ordinances might be uni- 
fied; and also that the States-General, who had already 
so largely acceded to the wishes of the Synod in 
other matters, would confirm the ordinance of 1586, 
which was very favorable to independent ecclesiastical 
authority. The States, however, refused to do so. The 
Synod then framed another ordinance. Based on the 
ordinance of 1586 and incorporating much of it, it 
failed to secure the approval of the government. 



178 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



XII 

THE ADJOURNMENT OF THE SYNOD OE DORDRECHT. 

The last session, which was the 180th, was held on 
"Wednesday, May 25th, 1619, at eight o'clock. After a 
short prayer, the Synod, the political delegates in advance, 
marched, each college of deputies by itself, to the great 
church of Dordrecht. As the procession passed the 
hall of Common Council, it was joined by the magis- 
trates of the city. After the Synod had occupied the 
space reserved for it, the throng entered and filled the 
vast building to its utmost capacity. A sermon was 
preached by the pastor, Balthasar Lydius from Isa. xii. 
1-3: "And in that day thou shalt say,. 0 Lord, I will 
praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine 
anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me. Be- 
hold, Grod is my salvation: I will trust and not be 
afraid : for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my 
song ; he also is become my salvation. Therefore 
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salva- 
tion." The preacher applied his discourse to the politi- 
cal condition of the land and the peculiar state of the 
Church. His points were: I. God sometimes visits his 
people in wrath. II. In such case his children must 
not complain, but invoke divine help. III. Deliverance 
having been obtained, grateful praises are due to the 
Author of it. At the close he said: 

" The Church has been delivered from the enemies 
who disturbed it. The doctrine of the Church has been 
established. The persons who declared that this doc- 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



179 



trine was held by a few doctors only, are confounded. 
Not only the churches in this country, but all other 
churches have subscribed it. It had always been 
claimed that the points in dispute must be decided by 
a General Synod. This has now been done. The Lord 
took away all pretended hindrances to the holding of 
such a synod. The work progressed and was brought 
to a successful termination. All gratitude is due to 
God for this. Gratitude is to be shown not only in 
words, but also in deeds, particularly by faithful at- 
tendance upon divine service. In regard to this last 
there is too much negligence, deserving of punish- 
ment." 

After the sermon God was earnestly and devoutly be- 
sought to bring all the resolutions of the Synod to a 
happy execution, promotive of the best interests of the 
Church. The service in the church over, the Synod, the 
political delegates, and the magistrates returned in the 
same order. At the hall of the Common Council, 
the magistrates, the President of the Synod and the 
adsessors entered it, the procession continuing its 
march without them to the usual place of meeting. 
President Bogerman, in the hall of the Common Coun- 
cil, thanked the magistrates of Dordrecht, in the name 
of the Synod, " for the singular piety, politeness; and 
generosity which they had kindly shown to the churches 
of the Netherlands and to their Synod." The magis- 
trates replied by thanking the Synod for the service it 
had rendered to the Church of God and the whole land, 
and by declaring their willingness to aid the Church in 
general, and every congregation in particular. 

The President and the adsessors having joined the 
Synod in the usual place of meeting, a short prayer was 
offered, and the hall was cleared of spectators. Then 



180 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the Synod listened to an eloquent address by Lord Hugh 
Musius Van Holen, in the name of the political dele- 
gates. The President replied. He praised the political 
delegates for the prudence and unwearied diligence with 
which they had directed the acts of the Synod. He 
thanked them for their advice, and trusted that 
God would reward them. He begged that anything 
unbecoming that might have occurred through hu- 
man infirmity, might be forgiven. Sir Hugh Musius 
answered that the political delegates were highly satis- 
fied with all the synodical proceedings. The President 
then turned and addressed the Synod, closing with the 
prayer that "they might at last all assemble in the 
Heavenly Synod, to love and praise the Lord with one 
mind throughout eternity." Once more Musius, in the 
name of his associates, commended the Synod for what 
it had accomplished. A solemn prayer of thanksgiving 
was then offered and the Synod was declared adjourned. 
After much shaking of hands, the members separated. 

On the same day Sir Musius Van Holen, the Mayor of 
Dordrecht; Simon Scott, Secretary of the City of Mid- 
delburg; Frederic Van Zuilen, Lord of Artsbergen; 
President Bogerman, the adsessors, the scribes, and 
Professor Polyander went to The Hague, and on May 
30th reported to the States-General, at first orally and 
afterwards in writing, all that had been done by the 
Synod. Upon their return to Dordrecht — whence they 
soon departed for their homes — they found that of all 
the great company that had been there for so many 
months, only a few political delegates were left. These 
remained a short time for the purpose of settling some 
financial matters. The fifteen Eemonstrants, who had 
been at the Synod, continued under arrest in the 
city. 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



181 



Thus this great meeting, which has left its impress 
upon the ages, came to an end. The expense was enor- 
mous, far exceeding the amount that had been appro- 
priated. It is said to have reached 1,000,000 florins. 
Some claim that this is an exaggerated statement; but, 
when a few of the items of expenditure are considered, 
it is evident that the cost must have run up to a very 
high figure. The traveling expenses of the foreign 
delegates were paid. "While they were in the Nether- 
lands, they received each a daily allowance of twenty-four 
florins, besides their expenses for fire and light. The 
British theologians received eighty florins each per day. 
Why this increased amount in their case does not ap- 
pear. The twenty gold medals and chains bestowed on 
the foreign delegates cost four thousand florins. The 
home delegates had each four florins a day, and ah the close 
of the Synod received each a silver medal. The Presi- 
dent had an allowance of thirteen florins per diem, and 
the adsessors received each, besides his four florins, a 
present of three hundred florins. The Lord of Brederode 
had for his services three thousand florins, and Counsel- 
lor Honart was rewarded with one hundred and eighty 
florins. The political delegates received each six florins 
per day and a silver medal. The fifteen Eemonstrants 
had a daily allowance of four florins each. 

But, great as was the expense of the Synod, it was 
accounted by the Oontra-Eemonstrants only a trifle in 
comparison with the resulting benefits. Pernicious in- 
novations, said they, have been plucked up by the roots. 
The true doctrine, from the first adopted by the Ee- 
f ormed Church, has been established. Peace has been 
restored to the Church and the State. A prospect has 
been opened for the spread of the pure truth. 

The decrees against the Eemonstrants were vigorously 
16 



182 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



enforced. The ministers, who would not sign the 
" Act of Silence/' were plunged with their families 
into much distress. The execution of the civil laws 
against the Remonstrants began to assume the form of 
violent persecution. The principle of liberty of reli- 
gion was not yet developed. There seemed to be a 
reason for the complaint uttered by the oppressed, in 
lines which may be thus translated: 

O woful condition of our loved land! 
Afflictions abound on every hand. 
Toward those who take the Remonstrant part, 
Anger is felt in the popular heart. 

The conscience of man once more is bound, 
And again the inquisitor holds his ground. 
With prisons and exile the people are pressed, 
And women as well as men are distressed, 

Who could have imagined such evils could be 
In a country which fought that it might be free, 
And willingly suffered great losses and pains 
In the effort to cast off its hateful chains? 

It certainly causes a strange surprise 
That a people Reformed should act in this wise — 
As to bring tears and sorrows even on those 
Who shared in the struggle against the land's foes. 

Now look at this trait of the Calvinist sect; 
Their character has this most grievous defect, — 
They wish not that bonds on themselves should be laid, 
To lay them on others they are not afraid. 

An effect of the Synod appears to have been that the 
bond between Church and State was drawn closer. The 
Synod thought that the result would have been just 
the opposite. But it was mistaken. The State was 
willing to maintain the doctrine of Calvin. It was not 
willing to give up its control over the Church. The 



DEFENSIVE PERIOD. 



183 



call for the Synod had gone out from the State. Its ap- 
proval of all the synodical proceedings had been asked for 
and obtained. Its delegates had supervised the meeting. 
The enforcement by the State of its acts against the Ke- 
rn onstrants was expected. The State felt that it had 
gained an advantage,, and it was not disposed to give it 
up. This peculiar relation between the Church and the 
State was destined to continue during more than a 
century and a half longer. 

With the adjournment of the Synod of Dordrecht, 
the defensive period of the Reformed Church in the 
Netherlands came to an end. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



BXs7ters ja?] riS vjuaS i'ffrai 6 (TvXayGoyGov dia rfjs 
cpikoo 'ocpiaS xai Jtevrjs anar-qi^ Kara t7]v Ttapado- 
6iv tgqv av0pGJ7ZGJv P Kara ra Groix&ot rov Koajiov, 
nai ov xara Xpiarov. 



I. 



A bikd's-eye yiew. 

As the formative period of the Eeformed Church in 
the Netherlands, ending with the Synod of Middelburg 
(1581), merged into the defensive, ending with the great 
National Synod of Dordrecht (1619), so the latter period 
merged into that of danger. These periods are not so 
distinctly defined that a line can be sharply drawn be- 
tween them. They overlap and predict each other. The 
student of the formative period expects the defensive; 
and no sooner has his expectation been realized than 
he anticipates that of danger. Before he has gone mid- 
way into the study of the third period, he looks for the 
fourth — that of a possible, if not an actual, disintegra- 
tion. 

The period of danger is contained within the cen- 
tury bounded by the years 1620 and 1720. It is a 
period full of interest, and therefore well worthy of a 
careful examination. Men arose in the course of it 
whose imperishable names are as household words on 
every scholar's lips. Schemes of philosophy have been 
framed in it whose influence on speculative and practi- 
cal theology will never cease. It is a shining commen- 
tary upon the teaching of God's Word, that " it is an 
evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord our God;" 
that it is not a light thing to despise God's holy things; 
and, that " a house divided against itself cannot 
stand." 



188 REFORMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

The political aspects of tlie century cannot be ig- 
nored, for the State still remained in close union with 
the Church and did not always affect it favorably. Its 
interference with things purely ecclesiastical was un- 
wise. Its peculiar attitude toward it was determined 
by jealousy, by social considerations, and by the self-in- 
terest of the regents in power during a twice-repeated 
interregnum. This jealousy lest the Church should 
gain an undue influence, aggravated no doubt by the in- 
trigues of the Eemonstrants who were recovering from 
their defeat, led to a resolution by the States of Holland 
forbidding ministers to preach on what were deemed 
political topics. 

Socially there was a lack of perfect harmony. While 
the members of the government belonged to the nobility, 
or to the wealthier classes, the ministry was supplied 
from the humbler ranks. To such a degree were the 
ministers at times despised that it was considered a 
calamity to a rich wife for one of them to marry her. 
From motives of self-interest, also, the magistrates 
failed to promote the welfare of the Church as a body, — 
particularly when the people were divided upon certain 
political measures or theological views, and when the 
ministers took sides with Regent or Stadtholder, Calvin- 
ists or Remonstrants. 

Politically the century falls into five divisions. The 
first of them covers the balance of the reign of Prince 
Maurice, until 1625, when he died; the second, the 
reign of his brother Frederic Henry, until 1647; the 
third, that of his son William II., who was in power 
only a short time, he dying in his twenty-fourth year in 
1650; the fourth was an interregnum of twenty -two 
years; and the fifth, the Stadtholderate of William III. 
(1672-1702), who, as the husband of the English Mary, 
also ascended the throne of England. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



189 



Doctrinally the Church stood throughout this 
period just where the great Synod of Dort left it. It 
continued to cling, nominally at least, to its Confession, 
its Catechism, and its Canons. Its resolution to do so re- 
ceived strength from the decree passed at the Great As- 
sembly of the States-General in the Hague in 1651, over 
which good Father Jacob Cats presided, to the effect 
that they would abide by the doctrines of the Eeformed 
Church. While other religions would be tolerated to a 
certain extent, orthodox Calvinism should remain the 
state religion. But alas! this zeal for the form of doc- 
trine came to be in general all of religious life which the 
Church manifested, until it was a serious question which 
thoughtful men asked themselves and others, whether 
the salt was not fast losing its savor. 

The evils that beset the Church, and which were the 
largest sources of the dangers that threatened it, were 
such as to undermine its spiritual health and to prey 
upon its very vitals. They were threefold. The first 
was the introduction of two systems of philosophy, the ' 
effect of which was to influence many to depart from 
the faith as it was expressed in the standards of the Ee- 
formed. The system which makes a merit of doubting 
everything except the bare proposition, " Cogito, ergo 
sum " — I think, therefore I exist — is not in harmony 
with the spirit which is content that reason, in respect 
to matters that are beyond its ken, shall be subordi- 
nate to faith. 

A system, too, which recognizes only two universal sub- 
stances — thought and extension — and regards them as 
properties of God, easily falls into the error of identify- 
ing the Creator with the creature, and of degrading the 
government exercised by a supramundane and personal 
God, into the despotic rule of an iron-moulded fatalism. 



190 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

The elimination, by any system, of God as the Bible re- 
veals Him, weakens the moral sense and leads to a 
dangerous disregard of the sanctions of theocratic 
law. 

The second evil was the prevalence within the Church 
of those conflicts which threatened its disruption. They 
arose from the effort to modify the influence of the 
Aristotelian philosophy upon speculative and practical 
theology. The result was that the pure Gospel was no 
more offered from the pulpits, and dry dialectical dis- 
quisitions were substituted for it. Spirituality declined 
among the people, and the cause of an exalted morality 
was seriously compromised. Two hostile camps were 
formed, into which the entire Church resolved itself. 
These may be styled, respectively, theological libertines 
and theological conservatives. 

Each of these armies, not content to follow its leaders 
into the battle against its opponents, began, as is gener- 
ally the case when the one leadership of the Lord Jesus 
Christ is ignored, to quarrel within its own ranks, and 
to fill the sanctuaries which it claimed, with discordant 
watchwords and with bitter denunciations of even an 
ally who happened to adopt a slightly different tone of 
thought or form of expression. Nor was this all. Each 
party had its own domestic as well as religious customs, 
and its peculiarities of dressing the hair, of apparel, and 
of deportment. 

Then, thirdly, there was the influence of wealth and 
a soul-destroying luxury. During the reign of Prince 
Frederic Henry, the god of this world came to be ex- 
alted upon the throne of an unexampled commercial 
prosperity. At the Hague, one of the rooms of the 
Stadtholder's palace was furnished with oriental mag- 
nificence, and food was served from golden dishes. In 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



191 



1637 was the famous speculation, — the tulip-craze — 
which spread from Haarlem and Amsterdam throughout 
the entire country. For one bulb 2500 florins were 
often paid, and in one instance 4600 florins and a coach 
with a span of horses. It is no wonder that the dis- 
tracting customs introduced as a result of the intimacy 
between the Netherlands and England during the time 
of William III., and of the contact with France occa- 
sioned by the reception of the refugees whom the revoca- 
tion of the Edict of Nantes had driven out, found a 
ready entrance. 

Now, while attempts were made to check the opera- 
tion of these evils, the danger soon appeared of more at- 
tention being devoted to the symbols than to the Bible 
itself; to the forms of scholasticism than to the simpli- 
city of gospel truth; to orthodoxy rather than to the 
faith that worketh by love. 

The mystical form, which the reaction from all this 
took was also unhealthy. It is not surprising that 
they to whom the religious teachings of the times were 
wholly insufficient, and who shrank from the infidelity 
that was gaining ground, and from the so-called Chris- 
tian liberty advocated by Peter Bayle and De Patot, 
sought a refuge somewhere. They found it not, how- 
ever, in the secret conventicles which they organized, or 
in the sacrifice of the literal sense of the Scripture 
to a hidden meaning and the exaltation of the inward 
spiritual light above the revealed Word as a guide to the 
soul. 

They who cast only a superficial glance at this history 
may hastily conclude that its record once more shows 
that " there is nothing new under the sun." But they 
who look deeper down perceive that the leaven of the 
kingdom of heaven never ceases working. In the sad- 



192 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

dest days of which we are writing the Church did not hide 
her light. In 1 622 Geneva sent Turretin to collect mon ey 
to aid in its defence against the Duke of Savoy. He re- 
ceived twenty thousand florins. In 1638 copies of the 
New Testament, printed in Geneva at the cost of the 
States of the Netherlands, were sent to the Greek Church. 
In 1643, the ministers of Zeeland sent letters to the Scotch 
churches, exhorting them to steadfastness as against the 
encroachments of the State Church. The Protestants 
of other lands were aided with large contributions. 
Churches were also planted in the East and the West 
Indies and in North America. 

This Third Period of the history of the Keformed 
Church in the Netherlands, presents for our consid- 
eration the following themes: The new philosophy of 
doubts (Descartes, 1596-1650); Erratic hermeneutics 
(Gocceius, 1603-1669); Conservative scholasticism (Voet, 
1588-1676); Bible interpretation; Church-factions; 
Separatist mysticism (De Labadie, 1610-1674); Pan- 
theistic fatalism (De Spinoza, 1632-1677); The denial 
of the influence of spirit on matter (Bekker, 1634-1698); 
Eationalism applied to Ohristology (Roell, 1653-1718); 
The state of the Church at the beginning of the eight- 
eenth century. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



193 



II. 

THE NEW PHILOSOPHY OF DOUBT. 

Ecclesiasticism and philosophy for many ages have 
striven for dominion over the inner life of man. By the 
Eeformation a check was put upon the former, and the 
hitter was recognized as of value for the Church only 
when legitimately employed to aid in setting forth the 
truth of Scripture in the form of logically constructed 
systems of doctrine. 

This view of its use was held by the Church-fathers 
who kept within proper bounds in following Aristotle 
as their guide, but it was ignored by the schoolmen to 
whom the immortal Greek furnished the means of the 
formation of obscure expressions and hair-splitting de- 
finitions. It was lost out of sight before a century had 
passed after the Eeformed in the Netherlands became 
consolidated into a church. Hence, those who probably 
were honest in their fears lest the Church should be- 
come oppressed by an ecclesiasticism which concealed 
its domineering spirit under mysterious terms and in- 
volved expressions, were ready to welcome a new philo- 
sophy which appeared to contain in itself a protection 
against the apprehended evil. A multitude were dis- 
posed to hail the teacher who, they thought, would 
show them how to proceed in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge concerning God, matter, spirit, and the essential 
nature of things. Not required to submit to a dic- 
tatorial authority, they would be permitted by him to 
17 



194 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

go on independently, slowly, and circumspectly, from 
the first dictates of nature and reason to things more 
complex aud difficult. 

Little, however, did those who gave this philosophy 
so warm a welcome, suspect the bad influence which it 
would exert on the theologians of the Eeformed Church, 
and on the Church itself, by placing obstacles in the 
way of the investigation of the truth of Scripture, and 
by inducing many to adopt opinions inconsistent with 
revelation. The utterances of the Bible on topics ele- 
vated beyond the capacities of reason are clearer, more 
reliable, and more authoritative than the conclusions of 
reason alone could possibly be. 

In 1629 there appeared in the Netherlands a French 
nobleman, Rene Descartes, who was born at Lahaye, in 
Touraine, in 1596. He was therefore in the prime of 
life when he came to the Low Countries. He had been 
there previously ; for, during the four years between 
1617 and 1621, he had served in the army of the States 
under Prince Maurice. He was educated as a Jesuit in 
one of the schools of that Order at La Fleche, in Aujou. 
As late as 1624 he exhibited the influence of his train- 
ing by making a pilgrimage to Loretto in fulfilment of 
a vow. This vow, however, had reference to the solu- 
tion of the doubts which had assailed him. To their 
clearing up in his own mind the Cartesian philosophy 
owes its origin. 

The principle of his system, which was intended as a 
reformation of that of Aristotle, was that everything 
must be doubted except the fact of one's personal being. 
The state of mind out of which Descartes evolved his 
philosophy was this: he doubted all that he had formerly 
regarded as truth — the existence of G-od, the existence 
of the world of matter, the existence of himself. But 



PEEIOD OF DANGEK. 



195 



out of this shipwreck he saved the conviction that in 
these very doubts, these very searchings, he had the 
warrant of his own existence. Upon. this conviction he 
reared a new system explanatory of the being of God 
and the being of man. He taught that one must doubt 
the existence of God and his perfections, the advantage 
to man of praising him or performing religions duties, 
and the genuineness of faith. Along the path of doubts 
one must come to clear views on these matters. 

According to Ueberweg, Descartes laid down four 
methods. First, receive nothing as true which is not 
evidently known to be such with a clearness which ex- 
cludes all doubt. Secondly, divide, as far as possible, 
every difficult problem into its natural parts. Thirdly, 
conduct your thoughts in due order, advancing gradu- 
ally, from the most simple and easy, to the more complex 
and difficult. Fourthly, by the completeness of your 
enumerations and reviews make it sure that nothing has 
been overlooked. 

This independence of thought and investigation, as 
applied to the interpretation of Scripture, though op- 
posed to the ecclesiastical tradition that had been framed 
upon the Aristotelian method, had a great charm for 
many. At the funeral of Kenerus, at Utrecht, on 
March 18, 1639, Amilianus, who delivered the oration, 
called Descartes the Archimedes of his age. But many 
denounced the Cartesian method in severe terms. Those 
who adopted it were suspected of atheism — because they 
mistrusted the authority of Holy Scripture; rejected 
the principles of logic and metaphysics which had been 
tested and generally received throughout the Christian 
world; esteemed the Mosaic account of the natural world, 
communicated by the Holy Ghost, so little that they 
held their own conceptions superior to it ; and detracted 



196 REFORMED CHURCH FN THE NETHERLANDS. 



from the divine authority of the Bible by secretly charg- 
ing the Holy Ghost with a want of success in the con- 
struction of syllogisms. 

But Descartes was not a rejecter of the Scriptures. A 
physicist as well as a mathematician and philosopher, he 
sought to point out the disagreement between some of 
the representations of the inspired writers concerning 
nature, and the actual facts. He did not ascribe such 
misrepresentations, as he regarded them, to ignorance, or 
to a purpose to deceive, but to a disposition to accom- 
modate one's self to prevailing though erroneous opinions. 

The debates to which the introduction of the Cartesian 
philosophy gave rise, were not confined to the schools. 
Their spirit at least affected the people also. Those 
who favored that philosophy spoke of the conservatives 
as indolent people, as uncultured and useless servants. 
Those who condemned it said that a good Cartesian is 
but a poor subject of the Prince. They designated the 
followers of the French philosopher as light-minded 
iconoclasts, seekers after new things and deniers of God. 
They ridiculed the idea that a true progress in knowl- 
edge was indicated by the glib use of such high-sound- 
ing terms as forma sulstantialis, occulta qualitas, and 
sympathia. 

The Government and the Church both attempted to 
check the sjDread of the opinions of Descartes. The 
Synod which met at Dordrecht in 1656, issued a pro- 
hibition against the adoption of them by the theologians. 
At a Frisian classis which met at Leeuwarden in 1668, 
an effort was made to vote a protest against the Cartesian 
philosophy as connected with theology. It failed, how- 
ever, through the interference of Bekker, one of the 
members who had adopted Cartesian views. In a dis- 
course in which he indirectly defended them, he said 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



197 



that many condemned this philosophy because they did 
not know what it was, having never had either the 
opportunity or the inclination to examine it carefully. 
Regius, the representative of Cartesianism at the Uni- 
versity of Utrecht, was sharply attacked by Prof. Voet 
who obtained from the government the decree that the 
new philosophy should be rejected. The reasons given 
were that it is in conflict with the old, that it corrupts 
the young men, and that it prepares them to adopt 
notions absurd and antagonistic to the accepted theology. 

Among the high-born in other lands who were the 
pupils of the celebrated author of " Meditationes de 
prima philosopMa" " Principia philosophies " and 
" Passiones Animce," were a daughter of Frederic, 
King of Bohemia, and a daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, 
King of Sweden. Descartes was a resident in the Neth- 
erlands for twenty years. In 1649 he accepted an in- 
vitation from the Queen of Sweden to come to that 
kingdom. After a short stay he died at Stockholm, on 
February 11, 1650. His method, which was intended 
to displace that of Aristotle, was itself crowded out by 
those of Leibnitz, Wolff, and Newton. 



198 KEF OR MED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



III. 

ERRATIC HERMENEUTICS. 

In the same year (1629) that the French philosopher 
Descartes came into the Netherlands from the South- 
west, a student of the original languages of the Scrip- 
ture, the junior of the former by seven years, entered 
from the opposite direction. He was making a brief 
visit to the University of Franeker. Johannes Coc- 
ceius was born in Bremen in 1603. In early youth he 
diligently applied himself to the study of ancient litera- 
ture. In Hebrew he received instruction from a Eabbi 
in Hamburg, and in Greek from a native of Greece, 
named Metrophanes Oritopulus. His aim was to reach 
such a degree of proficiency in the former tongue that 
he might read the prophecy of Isaiah without any help. 
In the latter he became so well versed that he was able 
to conduct a correspondence with his teacher. His 
linguistic attainments secured for him the position of 
professor of Oriental languages at the high-school of his 
native city when he was only twenty-seven years of age, 
and, six years later, a call to Franeker, to fill the chair 
in the same department in the Frisian University. 

It was in 1636 that Cocceius began to reside perma- 
nently in the Netherlands. After a residence of four- 
teen years in Franeker, he was appointed to the chair 
of theology in Leyden. In that city he remained until 
1669, when he died in the sixty-seventh year of his age. 
His life was not an eventful one. The life of a close 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



199 



student has in it but little of the variety of incident that 
characterizes the course through the world of those who 
have a prominent part in its most stirring scenes. Still, 
Oocceius not only had a large share in creating, but also 
in managing, the excitement of the day in reference to 
matters of Biblical interpretation and theology, in 
which the community of that time had a general inter- 
est as compared with that felt by the people of the 
present age. 

At the very beginning of his course at Franeker he set 
forth what he deemed to be the proper method of ascer- 
taining the meaning of the Scripture. The theological 
views, speculative and practical, to which these led, he 
elaborated as he subsequently entered the larger sphere 
of his labors in Leyden. In the latter city his lectures 
were at first not largely attended, because his utterances 
seemed to be obscure and vague; but it was not long 
before the novelty and the ingenuity of his explanations 
proved so attractive that the room at the University 
could not hold the students, and his lectures were de- 
livered afterwards in the edifice of the English congre- 
gation — the largest in the city. 

Oocceius disapproved of the blending of Cartesian 
philosophy with theology; nevertheless he was like Des- 
cartes in his independence. He was as anxious as his 
contemporary to get rid of the Aristotelian influence. 
While he endeavored, however, to avoid the danger aris- 
ing from the adoption of the Cartesian system, objec- 
tions, on the ground of its dangerousness, were raised 
against the mode of explaining Scripture which he ad- 
vocated, by those who adhered to the Aristotelian meth- 
ods and to scholastic theology. A path was to be traced, 
they thought, between the Cartesian Scylla and the Coc- 
ceian Charybdis. 



200 EEFOEMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Cocceius declared that he could not bear that Scrip- 
ture should be torn out of its proper connection and 
wrested to support controverted points. The custom- 
ary ecclesiastical phraseology or mode of expression he 
regarded as having a merely human origin. He would 
substitute for it such as was derived directly from the 
Scripture. He supported an exact grammatico-histori- 
cal interpretation, in opposition to what he considered 
a growing tendency to place dogmas above the Bible 
from which they were claimed to have been gathered. 
He aimed at the fundamental truths as these were pro- 
fessed by the Reformed Church : but these divested of 
all the covering that had been borrowed from the 
schools. He held that these truths were to be found in 
their purity in the Bible, and were to be brought out 
thence. He did not wish his followers to- go from one 
master to another. He would have them prove all 
things for themselves, holding that which is good. 
These principles command assent when they are pro- 
perly limited in their application. But when he who 
was guided by them, as his friends declared, did not 
hesitate to avow that the Scriptures signify what they 
may be shown to signify from the argument and the 
harmony between their several parts, he gave to every 
one who was ingenious enough to point out that his con- 
ception of them was not in conflict with them as cor- 
rectly understood, the liberty of putting into the Bible 
anything he wished to see there. 

Christianity was viewed by Cocceius under the image 
of a covenant between God and man, which he said was 
twofold: one made before the fall — the covenant of 
works; the other after that event — the covenant of 
grace. The latter exists under three economies. The 
first and the second are divided from each other by the 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



201 



giving of the law from Sinai. The third is that of the 
Gospel. It is set forth in two Testaments. The Old 
Testament is wholly prefigurative. 

The temporal possessions of the Israelites were only 
symbols of that which would be bestowed on believers 
under the New Testament economy. The pious under 
the old covenant which was made with Adam after the 
fall, and renewed with Moses, as they died, were in ad- 
vance favored with the good things the bestowal of 
which is possible only under the new Covenant which is 
entered into through Christ. While they remained in 
this life, they were the servants of God who were ani- 
mated only by a slavish fear of Him. The pardon of sin 
granted to them was imperfect. Their justification was 
essentially different from that of Christians; since a full 
forgiveness was impossible until Christ should come. 
The pressure upon them of the ceremonial law was an 
evidence of this. It was added by way of punishment, 
and was a constant reminder of the wrath of God. So 
long as the ceremonial law continued in force, the for- 
giveness of his sins meant, for a pious man, simply that 
punishment was withheld. Hence Old Testament 
saints could not have such comforting assurances as 
are enjoyed by believers after the advent of Jesus. 

Cocceius taught that the Sabbath, having been institut- 
ed in the desert, and not in Eden, was a shadow, and is 
abolished under the New Testament. The Jewish Sab- 
bath was a type of the spiritual rest promised to the fol- 
lowers of Christ. The hallowing of the seventh day 
was binding upon the Hebrews. It by no means lays 
any restriction upon the Christian believer. In this view 
Cocceius was sustained by Prof. Heidanus who, in dis- 
cussing in 1658, in Leyden, the theme, "the Sabbath 
and Sunday," declared that Christians keep this day of 



202 REFORMED CHURCH IN" THE NETHERLANDS. 

rest, not because it had come in the place of the Jewish 
Sabbath, but because they followed in the train of an 
ancient ecclesiastical usage. 

The history of the Christian Church Cocceius saw re- 
flected, as in a mirror, in the history of the Israelites. 
He divided it into as many periods as the New Testa- 
ment pointed at in the number of the seals, the vials, 
and the trumpets mentioned in the book of Revelation, 
and in the number of the parables of our Lord recorded 
in the Gospel of St. Matthew. 

Strong protests soon appeared against the views of 
Cocceius which were most at variance with the teach- 
ings of the Reformed Church. He had advanced his 
objectionable opinions on the Sabbath in 1655, in con- 
nection with his explanation of the Epistle to the He- 
brews. He was answered in 1658 by Prof. Essenius, 
of the University of Utrecht, in a work on " The con- 
tinuous moral obligation of the decalogue, and there- 
fore also of the Sabbath;" and in 1659 by Prof. Hoorn- 
beek, in a volume on "Hallowing God's name and day." 
In 1661 Prof. Maresius combated the Cocceian tenet 
concerning the three economies; and in 1665 Prof. Yoet 
entered into a controversy with the Leyden theologian 
upon the subject of his singular views concerning the 
forgiveness of sin, as withheld from the Old Testament 
saints, and bestowed on those who live under the dispen- 
sation of the Gospel. 

By the debates that resulted, and the following that 
Cocceius drew after him, especially on the ground of his 
theory of interpreting Scripture, the peace of the 
Church was seriously disturbed. The government did 
not take a very decided stand in the matter. The 
States of Holland, having been informed by their dele- 
gate at the Synod of South Holland, on Nov. 25, 1658, 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



203 



that the dispute concerning the Sabbath had been 
brought before that body, commanded that the affair 
should not be taken up for consideration. They de- 
clared, moreover, that the Church would abide by the 
deliverances of the Synod of Dort in regard to this Arti- 
cle, and ordered the Curators of the University that 
they should see to it that the professors issued no more 
pamphlets upon that topic. In this way they attempted, 
though in vain, to quench the flames of fierce conten- 
tion. Cocceius himself was removed from the scene of 
conflict by his death, which occurred on Nov. 4, 1669. 
A marble bust of the linguist and theologian was erected 
in St. Peter's Church in Leyden, though much against 
the wishes of his opponents. 



204 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IV. 

CONSERVATIVE SCHOLASTICISM. 

The form in which theological instruction was fre- 
quently offered at the time Descartes and Oocceius came 
to the Netherlands was moulded after that in which 
such men 'as Peter Lombard (the Master of the Sen- 
tences), Thomas Aquinas, who commented upon Lom- 
bard's work, and Duns Scotus, who lectured upon the 
"sentences" to thousands of delighted Oxford stu- 
dents, gave to the world their soaring dialectics. The 
abstruseness of the topics chosen for speculation; the 
keen logic required for the conduct of the arguments in- 
volved; and the fathomless depths, or dizzy heights, to 
which a conclusion was pursued, had their charms for 
men of superior intellect. 

Nevertheless, results were sometimes set forth in ex- 
pressions so stilted and vague that, whatever meaning 
they had in the mind of the author, they had next to 
none for those whom he attempted to enlighten. Thus 
the simplicity of the apostolic method of presenting 
divine truth was ignored, and the common people were 
starving while spiritual food was withheld from them. 
Many allowed their public instructions to be influenced 
too much by their love of obscure dialectics, and thus 
prepared the way for a reaction in the shape of a sepa- 
ratist mysticism. But there were some who in the 
lecture-room or pulpit endeavored to observe that 
golden mean between an abstruse philosophy and a too 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



205 



scholastic theology, which was possible only when the 
practical was not wholly sacrificed to the speculative and 
the traditional. Among these was the great life-long 
antagonist of both Descartes and Cocceius, and the 
leader of the party which, for nearly a century, was 
opposed to the adherents of an independent exegesis. 

Gysbert Voet was born at Heusden in 1588. In that 
city he became a student of the rector Odulphus. His 
educational course was completed at the University of 
Leyden. He was remarkable for the closeness of his 
application to his studies and for the tenacity of his 
memory. He was an omnivorous reader, devouring 
ancient and mediaeval literature alike. It was said 
that not a book came within his reach with the con- 
tents of which he did not make himself familiar. In 
his thirty-first year he was sent to the great Synod 
of Dort as a delegate from South Holland. A strong 
supporter of the Eeformed Church in respect to every- 
thing that distinguished it from Eomanists and from 
the other branches of Protestantism, he doubtless made 
his influence felt in that assembly. 

In 1634 he accepted the appointment of professor of 
theology in the newly formed University of Utrecht. 
The subject which he chose for his address at his in- 
auguration was " the close relation between knowledge 
and salvation." The form of theology which he pre- 
sented in the lecture-room was that of Calvin and Beza 
as reflected in the Catechism and Confession. This 
form, he was firmly convinced, was prescribed by the 
Scriptures. His explanations of the Bible, however, 
were drawn from the writings of the schoolmen. Al- 
though strongly inclined to the scholastic method of 
presenting the truth, because he deemed it a protection 
against the vagaries of Cartesianism and Cocceianism, 
18 



206 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

he did not neglect the teachings of practical religion, 
which he combined •with his dogmatics. This is illus- 
trated by his volume " Selectee disput at Hones theologicce" 
published in 1648. 

He exhorted his students to cultivate piety, and com- 
posed for their benefit a volume entitled " Exercitia 
pietatis in usum juventutis academiceP In this 
book he showed that theology is not a mere speculative 
science, but is thoroughly practical. He would not 
allow the translation of this book into the Dutch lan- 
guage, on the ground that its contents were beyond the 
comprehension of the unlettered. 

In 1637 Voet became a minister of the congregation 
at Utrecht. Under his ministry it became greatly ex- 
tended, so that the Consistory were obliged, after two 
years, to call the seventh collegiate pastor. His success 
is said to have been owing mainly to his zeal in catechiz- 
ing the children of his flock. The battle against the 
Cartesian system as applied to theolog}^, was begun by 
him in 1639, and constantly maintained. In 1656 he 
secured the passage, by the States of Holland, of a reso- 
lution by which the blending of the study of the Carte- 
sian philosophy with that of theology was forbidden, for 
the sake of the peace and quiet of the Church, under 
the penalty of suspension and deposition. 

Grieved at the lack of spirituality in the Church, and 
disposed to sympathize with every movement that held 
out the promise of effecting its increase, Voet gave at 
first a warm welcome to Labadie. From the same de- 
sire to raise the Church from its sad condition, Voet 
supported, against the magistrates of the cities, the 
private conventicles of those who were far from satis- 
fied with the ministry which they received in the 
churches. Such devotional exercises were under the 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



207 



guidance of a preacher named Koelman, who traveled 
from place to place. He was assisted by another min- 
ister named Herder, who went so far as to baptize at 
these private meetings the children of parents who had 
separated from the Reformed Church. These conven- 
ticles, which contained in themselves the germs of 
schisms, commenced in Holland and spread thence to 
Zeeland, Gelderland, and Friesland. 

Voet died, an old man of 88, in 1676. His life was a 
very busy one. Not only was he faithful in setting 
forth the doctrinal truths of the standards of the 
Church, but he was constantly engaged in polemics 
against Eomanists and Remonstrants, Arians and 
Socinians, schismatics and freethinkers. His lance was 
tilted even against Baptists and Lutherans. He was a 
devout man. His favorite volume, next to the Bible, 
was "The Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a Kempis. 
Frequently he could be heard exclaiming, " How I long 
after thee, my Jesus! When wilt Thou come? When 
wilt Thou satisfy me with Thyself and fill my soul with 
joy?" 



208 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



V. 

BIBLE-INTERPRETATION. 

At the close of the seventeenth century there were 
two schools of exegesis, led respectively by the leaders of 
independent hermeneutics and a conservative theology. 
The method of interpretation peculiar to each of these 
schools was set forth in the Universities according as 
the professors were the disciples of Cocceius or of Voet ; 
but it was also applied by the pastors in the preparation 
of their discourses. The sermons in which the results 
of these different methods were gathered up contained, 
moreover, slightly concealed or plainly expressed 
charges against, or ridicule of, the party which repre- 
sented the opposite view. The effect of this was that 
healthy Biblical criticism suffered. 

Investigation was denounced by some on the ground 
that the doctrines of the Church had been established. 
The translation of the Bible, which had recently been 
made, they held to be sufficient. There is no need, said 
they, of going into a critical study of the original 
languages of the Scriptures — certainly not for the pur- 
pose of detecting errors in the rendering, because a 
special Providence of God would prevent the introduction 
of them. The conservative interpreters were deterred 
by the fear, lest they should treat the Word of God in 
an unbecoming manner, from considering questions of 
translation or exegesis in which it was claimed an im- 
provement was possible. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



209 



A wise progress in these matters was not to be 
looked for from those who differed from the con- 
servatives, for they desired to find in one single 
Scriptural expression a multitude of hidden mean- 
ings. Hence, in their search for these, they treated 
the Bible as though it were a vast collection of religious 
riddles. After the protracted disquisitions, in which 
the preacher made a great show of his ingenuity, there 
was but little time left for a practical application of 
divine truth. When such application was not wholly 
omitted, it was exceedingly dry and barren, and had 
no effect in producing the spiritual development of the 
audience. 

The Cocceians aimed at an entirely de novo inves- 
tigation of the Scriptures. They thought their justifi- 
cation in this lay in the fact that controverted doctrines 
were propped upon isolated texts. These, they said, taken 
out of their connection, seemed to support such doc- 
trines, but, viewed in the light shed upon them by the 
context, they might be seen to convey a sense very 
different from that ordinarily received. Further, they 
held that the meaning of Biblical words is compre- 
hensive. They contain more than one thought. A 
skilful interpreter can draw from them a multitude of 
ideas. 

The basis of their exegetical system, elaborated by its 
founder in his works on Ecclesiastes, Job, and the Minor 
Prophets, was: "Id significant verha quod significare 
2)0ssunt in Integra oratione, sic ut omnino inter se con- 
veniant." The Oocceian pastors made a display of their 
learning in explaining their texts word by ivord. As 
they drew profound significations from the depths of 
the original, they forced upon their weary hearers critical 
conjectures concerning the Greek and the Hebrew. 



210 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



But their greatest ingenuity was exhibited in bringing 
to light, from underneath the sense of the Scriptures 
which was patent to even their plainest readers, a hidden 
meaning which they alone discerned. For the exercise 
of this ingenuity the largest scope was furnished by the 
miracles and parables in the New Testament, and by the 
prophecies in the Old Testament. The aim of all proph- 
ecy, said the} x , is Christ — who therefore must be sought, 
and can be found, everywhere. The prophecies, whose 
fulfilment cannot be recognized in Christ directly, bear 
for the greater part on the New Testament Church, 
founded by Christ in his blood, and closely united to him 
as the body to the head. The religion of the Old Testa- 
ment, with its ceremonial, is prophetico-typical ; or 
rather, prediction delineates, by striking images, either 
Christ himself, or the benefits which he secured, or the 
experiences of his Church, past and future. 

As specimens of this kind of interpretation the fol- 
lowing examples may suffice. The quarrel between Sarah 
and Hagar, the separation between Isaac and Ishmael, 
the birth of Jacob and Esau, the disagreement between 
Leah and Rachel, the sale of the birthright, are all so 
many prefigurations of the glorious mysteries which 
have their disclosures in the New Testament. The 
Song of Solomon is a prophetic history, in seven periods, 
of Christ's Church. Emperors, Kings, Electors, Armi- 
nius, Vorstius, the Synod of Dort, and the peace of 
Minister, are plainly portrayed in it. When the Psalmist 
(Psalm xliii. 1) cried, " Judge me, 0 Cod, and plead my 
cause against an ungodly nation/' and asked to be de- 
livered from "the deceitful and ungodly man," it was 
Christ who bitterly complained of the Pope and besought 
divine protection against him. When, in Lev. xx. 24, 
God said to his people that he would give them a land 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



211 



flowing with milk and honey for a possession, he prom- 
ised those who should live in the times of the New 
Testament dispensation, that he would put them in a 
state of faith toward a Redeemer who suffered for us in 
an earthly body. When our Lord healed a sick man at 
the pool of Bethesda (John v. 1-16), he set forth in a 
figure the transition, in the course of the covenant of 
grace, from the Mosaic unto the Christian period. 

The school of Voet regarded all Biblical criticism as 
highly dangerous. To its disciples it seemed impossible 
that any errors should have crept into the Holy Volume. 
They wholly rejected all presumed, concealed, allegorical, 
prophetical, or typical senses, and clung to the literal 
meaning alone. Conservatives in theology, they did not 
feel disposed to depart from that line in respect to the 
interpretation of Scripture. Still, they were fond of 
applying the contents of the Bible, as far as they could, 
to the moral state of man. In the pro}:>hecies they saw a 
double sense — a bodily and a spiritual. The spiritual 
sense, in particular, a careful preacher would bring to 
the attention of his hearers and apply as closely as pos- 
sible. While condemning the attempt made by the 
opposite school, to refer everything in the Old Testament 
to Christ and Christendom, the Voetians admitted that 
Christ and his apostles drew from it, and thus showed 
that these passages could be regarded as shadows of future 
ecclesiastical history. They denied, however, that our 
Lord and his apostles thus indorsed the view that these 
Old Testament texts were designed as figures of what 
was to come, for the reason that the Master merely 
yielded to a weakness of the Jews, who were very fond 
of this species of allegorizing. 

An illustration of the Voetian method of interpre- 
tation is seen in the explanation of Jer. xiii. 16, "''Give 



212 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



glory to the Lord your G-od before lie cause darkness 
and before you stumble upon the dark mountains." 
The dark mountains were such as were not illumined ; 
they were mountains not fortified ; insufficient to afford 
protection, they might therefore be regarded as them- 
selves representing sources of danger, such as hostile 
nations, but, especially, great calamities and judgments. 
Although it is admitted that the Voetians preached 
rather more unto edification than the Cocceians, still, as 
to the ministry of great numbers of both parties, it was 
too true that, while their discourses were brimful of 
learning, the intellect of the common people could not 
follow these orators in their flight, and their hearts re- 
mained cold and unaffected. The sermons, whose st} T le 
was obscure and artificial, witnessed to a false ingenuity, 
and had but little effect in enlightening the understand- 
ing of their hearers, or in cultivating their spirituality. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



213 



VI. 

CHUKCH-F ACTIONS. 

One of the evils which stood in the way of the pros- 
perity of the Reformed Church at the close of the seven- 
teenth century and the beginning* of the eighteenth, and 
which threatened her very life, was the internal strife 
which was conducted, by those who participated in it, in 
a spirit of bitter hostility. The suppression of the fac- 
tions by which the Church was distressed, required, on 
the part of the government, a management both wise 
and firm. At first there were only two, named, after 
Voet and Cocceius ; but they increased in number as 
each main party was divided up into minor divisions by 
differences of theological opinions, political views, and 
social customs. 

As has appeared repeatedly in the course of the history 
of controversies, the followers of those to whom these 
parties owed their existence go much farther than their 
leaders in the extent to which the strife is conducted, 
and are too much disposed to mingle rancor with zeal 
for the triumph of the argument. The unification of 
these parties, and the restoration of peace to the Church, 
seemed hopeless. The civil Power, instead of constantly 
endeavoring to restore harmony, at times even failed to 
observe a proper neutrality. Thus it often widened the 
breach by taking the side to which its own self-interest 
inclined it. 

When, in 1665, Prof. Maresius, of the University of 



214 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



Groningen, attacked Oocceius on the ground of his lax 
views concerning the Sabbath, and Prof. Yoet, of 
Utrecht, assailed him because of his erroneous opinions 
in regard to the forgiveness of sins under the old dispen- 
sation, the Cocceians and the Voetians became two dis- 
tinct parties. IsTor was it only a matter of doctrine upon 
which the split occurred. In regard to the relation be- 
tween the Church and the State they differed. The 
Voetians opposed, and the Cocceians favored, the inter- 
ference of the civil power in things pertaining to the 
Church alone. In the opinion of the Voetians, the Coc- 
ceians, especially that branch of them which adhered to 
the principles of interpretation advocated by Descartes, 
were enemies of the truth and the friends of error. They 
regarded them as corrupters of doctrine once established, 
and as the pests of the Reformed Church. Their sys- 
tem of theology was denounced, for, in accordance with 
the Cocceian conception of the nature of the covenant 
of grace, they interpreted God's arrangements for the 
benefit of man with reference to narrow and human no- 
tions, as though they were conformed to the principles 
upon which national judicial codes are constructed and 
civil contracts are made. 

The Cocceians, on the other hand, retorted upon the 
Voetians by charging them with disfiguring theology by 
means of their ingenious trifling and their silly scholas- 
tic inquiries. For this charge there was sufficient ground, 
if it is true, as alleged, that such questions as the follow- 
ing were seriously propounded and debated : Was 
Adam's body mutilated by the formation of Eve, or was 
the loss of a rib instantly made up to him ? Was the 
image of God in man that of the Trinity, or that of a 
single Person of the Trinity ? Is original sin an attri- 
bute, or is it a positive substance ? Where is the grave 
of Adam ? 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



215 



The contentions between the two main factions as- 
sumed a political hue. At the death of William II. in 
1650, the disciples of Prof. Voet expressed the desire 
that William III. might succeed his father in the office 
of Stadtholder. This does not seem to have suited the 
States of Holland, whose cause was supported by the 
Oocceians, and who therefore were disposed to cast the 
weight of their favor on the side of that party. The 
anger of the Voetians against their opponents was in- 
creased, moreover, in 1663, when, by direction of the 
government, the prayer for the Prince of Orange was 
omitted from the public services. It led to the applica- 
tion to the Oocceians of the name " Louvestein faction," 
in allusion to the imprisonment, in Louvestein Castle, 
of Hugo Orotius, who, together with Hogerbeets and 
Oldenbarneveldt, had opposed Prince Maurice. 

When, however, in 1672, William ITT. became Stadt- 
holder, the tables were turned and the Oocceians went 
under. They called loudly for a national synod, simi- 
lar to that of Dort in 1618-19, but the demand was not 
allowed. Four years later (1676), the Curators of the 
University of Leyden forbade, upon penalty of deposition 
and exile, the presentation of twenty theses which were 
attributed to the adherents of Descartes and Oocceius. 
This action was taken at the instance of the several 
Classes and provincial Synods which had appealed to the 
Government. This prohibition was answered by Prof. 
Heidanus in his "Moral Considerations." The threat- 
ened punishment was inflicted upon him. 

In 1683 divisions occurred in the ranks of the two 
principal parties, by which they were broken up into the 
minor associations which received distinctive appella- 
tions according to the peculiar features that character- 
ized each of them. The Oocceians were split into the 



216 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



Cocceians of Leyden and the "earnest" Oocceians. The 
latter applied the Oocceian method of Scripture interpre- 
tation unto greater edification. These two branches 
were also designated as the "genuine "or "Green" Coc- 
ceians (so called after their leader, Prof. Groenewegen — 
green ways) and the "serious" Cocceians (who followed 
Van Griffen). The Voetians were divided into the " old" 
or "dead" Voetians, and the "new" or "living;" also 
into the " Marckian," after Johannes a Marck, the 
author of a celebrated system of theology, and the 
"Brakelian," after W. Brakel, the writer of the "Rea- 
sonable Religion." 

When William III. died in 1702, and the second in- 
terregnum began, the Cocceians again gained the upper 
hand. The spirit of contention, however, had already 
some years previously begun to abate. The twenty-five 
pastors of Amsterdam, who were of the different shades 
of Cocceianism, or Voetianism, had assembled, and by a 
resolution in six articles, which every one thereafter 
called to the city would be required to sign, had voted 
that, since there was no essential differences between 
them in reference to theoretical and practical religion, 
they would esteem and treat one another as orthodox 
brethren. The adoption of this resolution had the hap- 
piest effect upon the churches in other parts of Holland. 

In 1691 William III. had taken another step towards 
the restoration of peace. He commanded the States of 
Holland and West Friesland to adopt an ordinance look- 
ing toward the preservation of fraternal relations be- 
tween the professors, the ministers, and the members of 
the Reformed Church. They passed such an ordinance 
in seven articles. Both Voetians and Cocceians were 
compelled to abide, in their writings, sermons, and cate- 
chetical exercises, by the usual forms of the Reformed 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



217 



Church. All that the Synod of Dort had left undecided 
was not to be declared of such weight and importance 
that the salvation of the soul depended on it. Mode- 
ration was to be exercised in the use of strange expres- 
sions, and great care was to, be obseryed in the applica- 
tion of the prophecies. Only those persons were to be 
selected for the preacher's office who were of a gentle 
disposition. 

The calm that followed this ordinance was not genu- 
ine. Numerous pamphlets were published. Among 
them was one from the pen of Joncourt, pastor of the 
Walloon church in the Hague. It was entitled " En- 
tretiens sur les differ entes metJiodes cVexpliquer VEcri- 
ture, et cle precher cle ceux qu'on appelle Cocceians et 
Voetiens, dans les Provinces TJnis." Another was by 
Batenburg, entitled "OuderMng's protest en raced tegen 
der Gocceijanen leer en leven" The true pacificator did 
not appear until several years later. In 1783 the aged 
Mommers, minister at Hemmen, published a work which 
had the greatest influence in bringing about the desired 
end. Its title was " Eubulus, or Good Counsel, given 
for the purpose of reconciling to one another the breth- 
ren severally designated as Cocceians and Voetians." By 
means of this volume an eighty years' strife in the 
Church was brought to a close. 

It is hardly possible to imagine the extent to which 
these dissensions affected the pulpit, and even the cus- 
toms of social life. The indoctrination of the young by 
means of catechetical exercises was abandoned to school- 
teachers, and in some cases was confined to the winter 
months. Partj^-spirit colored the questions and answers. 
As a specimen of the replies which a catechumen was to 
be able to give fluently before he was allowed to sit at 
the communion-table, look at the following : What 
19 



218 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



is a person? Answer. A substance, or an object which 
is self-existent, unique in life and intelligence, not com- 
municable to another, nor sustained by another, nor a 
part of another. What is a divine person? Answer. A 
distinct subsistence having the entire Deity in itself. 
Are the works of God distinct from God? Answer. Yes, 
as regards their aims and effects, but not in so far as 
they are in God. 

At the meetings of Classes and Synods there were 
fierce debates on the party questions involved. Matters 
were carried so far even that letters of dismission were 
refused on the ground of difference of opinion on the 
controverted points. This partisanship showed itself 
also outside the Church, not only on the part of min- 
isters, but also on that of the people. The Voetians wore 
their hair short; the Cocceians wore it long. On this 
topic sermons were preached and pamphlets were pub- 
lished. For a long time the Classes had a lemma entitled 
"long hair." The Voetians called Sunday " the day of 
rest;" the Cocceians called it "the Lord's day." The 
former kept the day strictly, refraining even from eat- 
ing warm dinners; the latter allowed considerable free- 
dom, and taught that after morning service the people 
might indulge in recreation and even do some work. 
The Cocceian ladies were in the habit of spiting the 
ladies of the opposite party by seating themselves on 
Sunday at their parlor windows engaged in embroider- 
ing. The Voetians dressed plainly and lived moderate- 
ly; the Cocceians dressed fashionably and lived luxuri- 
ously. The common people followed the former; the 
aristocracy the latter. Both parties showed too much 
pride, obstinacy, and uncharitableness. How good it 
was when peace was restored and brethren once more 
dwelt together in unity ! 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



219 



VII. 

SEPARATIST MYSTICISM. 

Contemporary with Descartes, Cocceius and Voet, 
was the representative and leader of that class in the 
Netherlands which thirsted for more spirituality in re- 
ligion. Despairing of seeing it developed in the Church, 
which was torn asunder by party strife, and ignoring 
the fact that the Divine Word is the instrument by 
which the Holy Ghost works it in the hearts of men, 
they who constituted this class sought to attain their 
object by separating from the Church. They followed 
as their guide, not the Bible alone, but a certain inward 
spiritual light. The history of that sect, which has a 
point of contact even in the history of the United States, 
is a distinct feature of those times. 

Jean De Labadie was born in Bourg, Guienne, France, 
on February 13, 1610, in the Eomish communion. His 
parents intended that he should devote himself to the 
practice of law; but as he showed even in early youth 
a great fondness for theology, he was sent to a Jesuit con- 
vent at Bordeaux. Being of a very devout disposition, 
he prayed much, and at his devotions thought he had 
visions of Christ. The works of St. Augustine and St. 
Bernard were his chosen guides. In his twenty-ninth 
year he had a difference with his brethren in regard to 
the return of what he called "the golden age" of the 
Church, and he left them to join the Jansenists of Port 
Eoyal. 



220 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Sent by the latter to Amiens, lie there found a few 
congenial companions with whom he read the Bible in 
French, united in prayer, and celebrated the Lord's 
Supper. The interdict laid upon these practices by 
Cardinal Mazarin he did not obey, and accordingly, be- 
ing compelled to flee from place to place, he came to 
Montauban, where he remained seven years. Thence he 
went to Orange, the capital of the princedom Orange- 
Nassau; and, after a stay in that place of two years, ac- 
cepted a call to London. On his way thither he passed 
through Geneva. Preaching there with such success that 
crowds gathered to hear him, he determined to abandon 
his journey to England and to settle in the city of 
Calvin. Among his disciples there was Spanheim, and 
Spener, the author of the "Pia Desideria." 

Among De Labadie's hearers in Geneva was a brother 
of the celebrated Anna Maria Schurman, of Utrecht. 
This lady was very eminent for her learning. She was 
skilled in the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin languages. 
In the last tongue she composed poems of great merit, 
published in her work, entitled " Opnscula/' in Leyden, 
in 1648. She was also thoroughly familiar with the 
French, Italian, German, and English languages. In 
theology and philosophy she was well versed, and was 
able to give information to some of the foremost men of 
the times who came to her for instruction. Receiving 
from her brother the most glowing accounts concerning 
the new preacher at Geneva, Schurman began a corre- 
spondence with him, which was kept up for five years, 
until 1666, when De Labadie listened to overtures made to 
him by the Reformed Church of Middelburg to become 
its pastor. 

Schurman invited him to visit Utrecht and to be her 
guest during his stay in that city. De Labadie accepted 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



221 



the invitation, and remained ten days, preaching to great 
throngs and producing a favorable impression even upon 
Voet, the instructor of Schurman in the ancient langua- 
ges. At Middelburg the following of De Labadie was 
equally great. Multitudes thronged the church, at- 
tracted by the voice of the preacher who, exciting the 
emotions rather than informing the intellect, swayed 
them at his will. But here his troubles began. His 
fellow-ministers turned against him on the ground that 
he was an innovator. Doctrinally they could not al- 
lege anything against him, except that he refused to sub- 
scribe to the Walloon Confession, which speaks of Christ 
having " suffered on the altar of the cross," which, said 
he, is not a Scriptural expression. They also opposed 
him because he believed in the thousand years' reign 
of Christ. 

When, in 1668, De Labadie denounced as heretical a 
work of Wolzogen, the Walloon preacher at Utrecht, 
which the Walloon Synod of Naarden had declared 
orthodox, the opposition came to a head; and in the fol- 
lowing year De Labadie was deposed by the Walloon 
Synod of Dordrecht. Wolzogen was understood by De 
Labadie to teach that a knowledge of the languages and 
of archaeology sufficed, without a higher illumination, 
for the interpretation of the Scriptures, and that reason 
is an adequate test of their acceptableness. 

In this deposition the States of Zeeland and a com- 
mittee from the States-General concurred, but the 
measure was by many regarded as too severe. As De 
Labadie continued to administer the communion, great 
commotions ensued, so that he was compelled by the 
magistrates of Middelburg to leave the city. He retired 
to Veere, in the neighborhood. Here he formed an in- 
dependent French congregation, which would not attach 



222 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



itself to any symbolical books, but only to the Gospel, and 
assumed the name of the Evangelical Church. On Sun- 
days crowds left the gates of Micldelburg to listen to the 
minister of Veere, who was now also possessed of the 
prestige of martyrdom. Upon this, the magistrates of 
the former place commanded those of Veere to expel the 
rebel. Veere naturally resisted, and the two cities were 
preparing for active war, when De Labadie, in a Christ- 
like spirit, bade his flock sheath their swords, and 
announced his determination to avoid bloodshed by 
retiring. 

In Amsterdam, whither many families of Middel- 
burg followed him, he was at first kindly welcomed by 
the magistrates. Under the protection of the civil gov- 
ernment of that city he thought that he had found a 
haven of rest. And, indeed, for a time his cause pros- 
pered greatly. Schurman had joined him from Utrecht, 
contrary to the earnest protestations of Prof. Voet. She 
was a second Paula, bound in a platonic friendship to 
this second Jerome. She left the Reformed Church and 
joined the Labadists. Daily she sat at the pastor's feet, 
as at his house he led the devotions of his followers. But 
this prosperity of the sect soon began to wane. A de- 
cree was obtained from the magistrates that no new 
members should join it. Those who were already con- 
nected with it began to leave one by one. They were 
required to practise too much self-denial. An upper 
room now easily accommodated their numbers. A 
charge of crime against De Labadie, which, on examina- 
tion, was found to be groundless, further brought the 
sect into disrepute. 

When, therefore, in 1670, Elizabeth, a princess of 
the Palatinate, a great friend of Schurman, invited the 
Labadists to come to her dominions, they went and set- 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



223 



tied at Hervord. Here, however, a scandal was raised 
on account of some loose practices said to haye occurred 
at the observance of the Lord's Supper. Compelled to 
leave this place in 1672, they removed to Altona, in Den- 
mark, where De Labadie's eventful life came to a close on 
February 13, 1674. 

In their doctrinal views the Labadists did not essen- 
tially differ from the Eeformed Church. They held, 
however, some strange notions. They declared that 
the covenant of grace concerned those only who, on the 
ground of certain external evidences given by them, were 
to be accounted the pious. Not they who made a pub- 
lic profession of their faith, but they who were of ap- 
proved piety, constituted the Church. The only pur- 
pose which the Sacraments subserve is to strengthen the 
faith of those who are in the covenant. Children may 
be baptized, but it is better to defer their baptism until 
they have come to years of discretion and can furnish 
evidences of their faith. Only those who are of approved 
piety may partake of the Lord's Supper. 

The mysticism of the Labadists appeared in their 
views of practical religion. Their tendency to asceti- 
cism was based upon certain inward communications of 
the Holy Ghost, who causes a Christian to see all in 
God, to enjoy God, and to become indifferent to the 
events of earth except in so far as God may be glorified 
by them. They distinguished between the exoteric, 
sensuous matters of religion which are contained in the 
Bible, and the acroamatic, which required a higher de- 
gree of speculative reflection and were revealed only to 
God's friends. The operations of the Holy Spirit, which 
are not confined to time or place, should be sought every 
moment. Sunday is not a holier day for this purpose 
than jiny other day. The reading of the Bible is not 



224 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

essential. It should not indeed be neglected, but more 
attention should be giyen to the inward communications 
of the Spirit of God than to the external letter of the 
Word. Only those who are favored with such special 
grace lead a hidden life with Christ and are saved. Only 
a pious soul, fully assured of its salvation, is in a state 
of grace. God must be loved for his own sake, and all 
self-love must be destroyed. If God's glory were to be 
promoted by our damnation, we must not only be con- 
tent with it, but rejoice in it. 

After the death of De Labadie, his sect removed from 
Denmark back to the Netherlands, and settled in Wieu- 
werd, in Friesland. Four years later, Anna Maria 
Schurman, who wrote books in its support, and who had 
gained such influence among its members that they held 
her as a prophetess, died there. Her decease was a great 
loss to them. At first they secured the good -will of the 
ministers and the people on account of their modest and 
pure lives, and received the privileges of the Established 
Church. Many of the Eeformed, who held that the 
Church had become corrupt, and that the Labadists ap- 
peared to furnish such examples of piety as had graced 
the Church in former times, desired to join them. 

The tide of favor, however, soon changed. Brakel, 
who had once thought well of them, together with 
Witsius and Vitringa, now said that he thanked God 
that he had come to a better way of thinkiug. 

Moreover, the requirement that whoever joined them 
should sell his goods and turn the proceeds over into 
the common purse, had its effect. 

At last the State and the Church combined against 
them. On June 1, 1675, the Synod of Friesland re- 
solved to adopt measures against them as a dangerous 
sect. A committee was appointed to request the States 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



225 



of Friesland to take this matter into consideration. By 
the latter a committee was appointed to join the synodi- 
cal committee, to ascertain from the Labadists themselves 
what their peculiar views were, and also, the nature of 
their objections against the Eef ormed Church. At a con- 
ference, conducted in Latin, twelve questions were sub- 
mitted to them. From their replies it appeared that they 
did not desire to make schism in the Church; that they 
only wished to reform the Church within it; and that 
they desired improvement in Church government and 
discipline. 

The States, contrary to the designs of the ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities, wished to deal leniently with them. 
As the result of a persistent opposition to the sect, it 
gradually diminished in numbers, and finally passed out 
of existence. The Labadists had a mission in Surinam. 
For a time they were represented in the New World. 
They had two churches in New York City, under the 
pastoral care, respectively, of P. Schluter and J. 
Dankers. These congregations did not continue long. 



226 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VIII. 

PANTHEISTIC FATALISM. 

Descartes had only eighteen years more to live ; Coc- 
ceius, as yet a very young man, was teaching the languages 
in Bremen ; and Voet, in his forty-fourth year, was in the 
prime of his mental power, when, on November 24, 
1632, there was born, in the house of a Portuguese Jew 
of Amsterdam, a child whose name was destined to be- 
come prominent in the domain 'of philosophy. Baruch — 
Latinized, Benedict — De Spinoza sprang from a family 
whose immediate ancestors had been exiled from Spain 
on account of their attachment to the faith of Israel, 
and had sought and found a refuge in the ever-hos- 
pitable Netherlands. 

Having been designed by his father for the Hebrew 
priesthood, he received the instructions of the celebrated 
Talmudist Eabbi, Saul Levi Morteira, and became a 
close student of Maimonides. Francis Van Den Ende, 
a learned physician, taught him the Latin language. 
Under these teachers he made such progress as to in- 
spire the liveliest expectations of future greatness. His 
cabalistic researches and Talmudic studies failed, how- 
ever, to satisfy his soul, and could not solve for him the 
great questions which he revolved in his thoughtful 
mind. As he discoursed with a couple of students con- 
cerning the nature of God, the immortality of the soul, 
and the reality of angels, he would reply to the ques- 
tions which they propounded to him : " You have 
Moses and the prophets." 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



227 



Nor, indeed, did Spinoza reject the Bible. On the 
contrary, he held it in the greatest reverence. But to 
him it was an exhibition of the law of ethics. While it 
was not to be interpreted so as to agree with human 
reason, the latter was not to be subordinated to the 
teachings of the Bible. The same method by which 
nature must be comprehended, should be applied in the 
interpretation of the Scripture. 

It has been said that Spinoza embraced the Christian 
religion without confessing it. That he felt drawn 
toward the great Founder of the Christian religion 
cannot be denied; but his conception of its fundamental 
truths was not in accord with the representation of 
them in the symbols of the Reformed Church. " He 
ascribed/' says Ueberweg, "a pre-eminence to Christ 
over Moses and the prophets ; for the reason that Christ 
did not receive the revelation of Cod through the hear- 
ing of words or through visions, but discovered it imme- 
diately present in his own consciousness. In this sense 
the divine wisdom took on human nature." The divine 
origin, however, of the Christian religion, he declared, 
could be demonstrated from the moral import of the 
teachings of Christ and his apostles. They were clear 
and easy of apprehension, he said, and aimed to make 
men wiser through faith, and better through obedience. 

While Spinoza thus referred some to the Moses whom 
his fathers held in honor, and referred to the greater 
than Moses those who had been nurtured in the religion 
of Jesus — in both cases because they could not enter the 
field of his speculations or apprehend the nature of his 
conclusions — he himself applied to Descartes, and had 
recourse to his own subtle intellect. His work, pub- 
lished in 1663 — " R. Cartesii principiorum philosophies, 
more geometrico demonstrated — is pointed at as showing 



228 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



that he had adopted the principles of that philosopher. 
Still the two men differed from each other very materi- 
ally. The starting-point of Descartes was doubting 
everything; that of Spinoza, regarding everything -as 
fixed immovably. The former said, "everything might 
have been otherwise than it is;" the latter, "everything 
necessarily is as it is." The two men agreed in the 
recognition of the two subsistences — thought and exten- 
sion. 

How Spinoza, by intense reflection, evolved from his 
own mind the system which bears his name and is set 
forth in his theologico-political treatises, published in 
1670, is graphically described by Auerbach. Spinoza 
pursued for a living the manufacture of optical glasses. 
In this work he reached a high degree of skill. " From 
early morning," says our author, "he sat working at his 
bench. As he snipped a piece from his glass with his 
sharp diamond, he broke an idea off from the great 
system that lay complete, though undeveloped, in him- 
self. When he worked the leaden plate and gave the 
glass its proper form, the idea in him gained firmer 
shape. So on through all the stages. Ever more dis- 
tinct became the form ; ever more transparent the 
material. Many splinters must fall, many rough places 
be smoothed, till at last the truth should be reflected in 
the mirror. When he had earned his bread by the day's 
handiw T ork, in the quiet night, by his single lamp, he 
placed his finely polished ideas before him, collected the 
dust which had fallen from them, and strewed it thereon, 
so that they became more opaque. Then, with a light 
hand, wiped it off, and proved that it did not necessarily 
belong there, and that he had but hidden, not extin- 
guished, the light. So worked, so philosophized Bene- 
dict de Spinoza." 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



229 



Spinoza's principal teaching concerning God's exist- 
ence is, that there is one Supreme Being, a unique 
example of true life, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, 
almighty, holy. This one true God is the source of all 
that exists, of that which has been, is, or shall be, the 
necessary, free, infinite, eternal source of all, the imma- 
nent cause of the universe. This last proposition is laid 
down in the following statements which are taken from 
his "Ethics": "Everything is in God; nothing is out- 
side of God. Everything that exists is in God — the 
only possible subsistence. Nothing can be without or 
outside of him." "All things, those that think and 
those that have extension, must be referred to God, the 
only possible subsistence. God's attributes, which con- 
stitute his nature, are infinite thought and infinite 
extension. God is an extended, thinking Being." "All 
things, both the material and the intellectual, neces- 
sarily flow as modifications from these two attributes of 
God. The material are modifications of the infinite 
extension; the intellectual, of the infinite cogitation. 
Everything, therefore, pertains to the one, identical, 
only possible substance, and is an expression of God's 
nature. " 

These propositions contained the germs of several 
errors. Human personality and responsibility are lost; 
for the race is then an aggregate of certain properties or 
modifications that flow from the same eternal and in- 
finite subsistence ; and the evil as well as the good is 
attributable to God. "It was his aim," said Mosheim, 
"to evince that the whole universe, and God himself, 
are precisely one and the same thing; and that whatever 
takes place arises out of the eternal and immutable laws 
of nature, which necessarily existed and was active from 
all eternity. Every individual is himself God 3 and can* 
30 



230 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

not possibly commit sin/' His system, moreover, con- 
fined the Supreme Being within the mould of an iron 
fatalism. The liberty which he ascribed to G-od was 
not the liberty according to which it was a matter of 
indifference whether G-od did anything or nothing, acted 
thus and not otherwise (libertas indiffer entice) ; nor the 
liberty of determination, unto the choice of the best or 
the fittest (libertas spontaneitatis); but the liberty in 
which he acted only according to the laws of his intrinsic 
nature {libertas necessitatis), as Spinoza understood that 
nature to be. 

It is not surprising that in the opinion of some 
Spinoza denied the Godhead altogether, as he con- 
founded the Supreme Being with his works ; and that 
to others he seemed a confirmed pantheist. But, as 
remarked by one of his countrymen, "he was not a 
pantheist, in the sense in which Eastern philosophers 
and Neo-Platonists, according to their doctrine of the 
emanatio, held Gk>d and the world as identical. Still, 
he was a species of pantheist in that, in his system, 
everything is in God, nothing is without God ; the 
theistic doctrine of a personal, supramundane G-od is 
hopelessly lost." 

Spinoza's departure from the faith caused much dis- 
tress to his family and to his Jewish brethren in the 
city. In every way they tried to reclaim him. A pen- 
sion of a thousand florins was offered him, but in vain. 
An assassin nearly destroyed his life. At last he was 
solemnly excommunicated from the synagogue. The 
scene was a fearful one. On August 6, 1656, the 
large edifice was thronged. Thousands of burning 
candles, which had been painted black, threw a lurid 
glare into a cavity filled with blood. A mournful voice 
was heard, in a sort of chant, intoning the decree of 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



231 



excommunication. Then the trumpets sounded in loud 
blasts. As these ceased, and the anathemas were hurled 
against the apostate, the candles were cast into the blood 
and extinguished. Terror-struck in the thick dark- 
ness that followed, the multitude heard the dreadful 
"Amen" by which the awful curses were confirmed. 

The object of this wrath felt that he could no longer 
remain in Amsterdam. He removed to the Hague. 
He was regarded as a pernicious child of darkness, and 
the government issued placards against the diffusion of 
his publications. Nevertheless, he received, in 1673, a 
call to a professorship in Heidelberg. This, however, he 
declined, on the ground that his liberty of philosophizing 
should not be prejudiced by unavoidable collisions with 
critics and opponents. Four years later he died. 

Spinozism, as it was called, was combated by many in 
the Netherlands. Prominent among those who entered 
the lists against it was an intelligent mechanic, named 
William Denrlioff, who published several volumes char- 
acterized by a vivid conception of the nature of true 
philosophy as applied to the explication of abstruse 
theological problems. In 1703 Frederic Van Leenhoff, 
a minister in Zwol, published his "Heaven on Earth, 
or a short and a clear description of a sure and permanent 
joy, according to reason and the Holy Scripture, for all 
sorts of people, in all sorts of circumstances." This 
book, which was thought to be tainted with the Spinozan 
doctrine of fatalism, gave occasion for much strife, in 
which the magistrates and the Church authorities took 
sides, and which finally resulted in the deposition of the 
author, and in the Synodical warning, long after his 
death, against Spinozists and Leenhovists. 



232 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IX. 

THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRIT ON MATTER DENIED. 

Contemporary with Spinoza was a man who, though 
he provoked the judgments of the Reformed Church 
because of his errors, still, in the very promulgation of 
them, struck such heavy blows against one of the fore- 
most evils of the times, that he is ever to be regarded as 
one of the world's great deliverers. Balthasar Bekker 
was born in 1634, in the neighborhood of Groningen. 
His ministry began in Frieslancl. Although he was a 
student both of philosophy and of theology, yet he de- 
clared himself averse to the blending of the two, saying 
that to do so would be a mixing up of the things of earth 
with those of heaven. 

It cannot be denied, however, that in his polemics 
against the terrible superstition under which Europe 
had been groaning for nearly two centuries, he called 
to his aid, in the elaboration of his argument, some of 
the principles which had been set forth in the systems of 
Descartes and Spinoza. As an interpreter of the Bible, 
he was independent — refusing to adopt the rules either 
of Cocceius or of Voet. He succeeded in getting his 
parishioners to investigate the Scriptures diligently for 
themselves. In 1670 he asked the Faculty of the Uni- 
versity of Franeker to examine an exposition of the 
Heidelberg Catechism, which he had prepared; and, if 
the way should be clear, to signify their approval of it. 

Professor Arnoldi objected to the book. This is not 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



233 



surprising if Bekker was correctly reported to teach that 
if Adam had not sinned he would have been immortal 
by virtue of the fruits of the tree of life; that endless 
punishment, which he said consisted of horror and de- 
spair, is not in agreement with the goodness of God; and 
that episcopacy was the most ancient and the usual form 
of Church government. Arnoldi secured from the 
Frisian Classis and Synod a condemnation of the vol- 
ume. A vote to that effect was passed on the ground 
that the exposition was tainted with Cartesianism and 
Cocceianism. Bekker made a few alterations in the 
book, which was then approved and published in 1674. 
Either the changes introduced by him were such as to 
indicate an entire modification of the author's views; or, 
if they were slight and immaterial, the classical approval 
that followed showed that there were many who sym- 
pathized with him in his opinions. 

After this, Bekker assumed the pastorate of the church 
of Loenen, in Holland, and in 1676 he became minister 
at Weesp. In 1679 he was called to Amsterdam. 

During the years 1680-1 a brilliant comet appeared. 
The religious teachers of the Reformed Church were in 
the habit of teaching the people that these mysterious ce- 
lestial bodies were to be regarded as the harbingers of great 
calamities. Their opinion was based on G-en. i. 14; Luke 
xxi.ll; Actsii. 19, 20. They derived support from the rule 
which was universally received : omnium gentium confes- 
sionem naturw vocem esse putandum. When, in 1664, 
a comet had frightened the beholders, Voet justified 
their fears by his book " Exercitatio de Prognosticis 
Cometarum." In this volume he announced, with all 
the earnestness of pious conviction, that comets are the 
reliable indicators of calamitous events. Petit, however, 
in France, and Sturm in Germany, published their clis- 



234 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



sent from this view. Bekker issued his protest in 1683, 
at Leeuwarden, in an elaborate work on comets. As 
the sceptical Peter Bayle held the same position in re- 
gard to these phenomena as that expressed by Bekker, 
this fact did not a little towards bringing the latter into 
disrepute with the orthodox. 

The peacefulness of Bekker's life at Amsterdam came 
to an end when, twelve years after his settlement there, 
he published, in 1691, his most famous work, entitled, 
"The World Bewitched" (De Betooverde Wereld). This 
work, during the composition of which he was encour- 
aged by his wife, eifected much toward the breaking up 
of the dreadful evil of witch-hunting and witch-killing. 
It created a great excitement. It is a mine of learning. 
Many apparently well-sustained ghost-stories were by 
the author traced to their origin at very great pains, 
since he visited in person the scenes of many of them, 
and, by his inquiries, was often led into the most repul- 
sive places. Among the numerous medals that were 
struck, expressive either of the esteem or of the abhor- 
rence in which this composition was held by the people, 
is one in which Bekker is represented as a Hercules, and 
his book as a club with which he drives the devil out of 
the earth. 

The design of this work was to free Christians from 
the fear, which they shared with Jews and Mahometans, 
of the Chief of evil spirits, who was presumed capable 
of injuring both the bodies and the souls of men. This 
fear Bekker regarded as the natural consequence of the 
prevailing but erroneous ideas concerning good spirits 
and bad, and their power to influence man. His opin- 
ion was, that the statements in the Bible concerning 
good angels and bad angels, were to be understood in an 
allegorical sense. The good angels that were mentioned 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



235 



were good men; and the bad angels were either bad 
men, or they were bad passions and propensities, so 
called. Demoniacal possessions were cases of epilepsy. 
The Lord, indeed, spoke and acted as though they were 
genuine cases of possession, but this he did only in con- 
formity to an unsurmountable prejudice, Avhich he well 
knew it would not be prudent to ignore. Thus, too, 
the results of the operations of purely natural agencies, 
were by the Lord and his apostles ascribed to the in- 
fluence of angels. They did this in accordance with the 
notions of the times, and after the example of the pro- 
phets of the Old Testament. It is not possible for the 
devil and evil spirits to injure mankind, because the 
Scripture itself says that he is confined in an abyss, 
bound in chains. And if it were not so, yet he could 
not, as a spiritual being, affect the bodies of men. 

In support of this point Bekker drew upon the phi- 
losophy of Descartes. A thinking substance, he said, 
could not operate on an extended substance. His argu- 
ment, as set forth by Maclaine, is as follows: "The 
essence of mind is thought and the essence of matter is 
extension. Now, since there is no sort of conformity or 
connection between a thought and extension, mind can- 
not act upon matter unless these substances are united 
as soul and body are in man; therefore no separate 
spirit, either good or evil, can act upon mankind. Such 
acting is miraculous, and miracles can be performed by 
God alone." Bekker admitted that God acts upon mat- 
ter, but he declared that this was miraculous. Unless 
he denied that God acts upon matter constantly, he held 
that miracles were unceasingly performed. If there is 
no time when there is no miracle, when is the time when 
there is a miracle? It is hardly probable that Bekker 



236 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

did not perceive this dilemma; but if lie did, he did not 
announce his way out of it. 

The Consistory of the Church at Amsterdam were the 
first to proceed against Bekker. TheClassis of Amster- 
dam next took up the case; and then the Synod of North 
Holland, which met at Edam the same year (1691) that 
" The World Bewitched " was published. During the 
following year the author was suspended from the min- 
istry. The sentence of suspension only, was passed in the 
hope that the subject of it would abandon his errors. 
This, however, he refused to do, since he had enter- 
tained these views already for a period of twenty-five 
years. Accordingly the Synod, meeting that same year 
at Alkmaar, deposed him from his office and debarred 
him from the privileges of the communion. Six years 
later (1699) Bekker died, without having become recon- 
ciled to the Church. Indicative of the feeling of the 
magistrates of the city toward him is the fact that they 
continued him to the last in the enjo}nnent of his salary, 
and prevented the Consistory from electing any one in 
his place until he had passed away. 

As late as the close of the eighteenth century many 
synods had in their order of proceedings a lemma en- 
titled "Dr. Bekker." This was introduced in 1693, 
when the Classes of North Holland and South Holland 
adopted certain questions which were to be asked of can- 
didates for licensure, with reference to what was called 
" Bekkerism." The Chassis of Walcheren, in Zeeland, 
speedily followed the example. 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



237 



X. 

RATIONALISM APPLIED TO CHRISTOLOGY. 

The leader of those who, during this period, were of 
opinion that reason and conscience justly constitute the 
bar at which the true and the false, the good and the 
evil, are to be determined, was Herman Alexander Boell. 
He was born in 1653, in the earldom Mark. During 
his youth he had the benefit of the instructions of the 
very best teachers. The city of Deventer was the scene 
of his ministerial work. At first a Cartesian Cocceian, 
he afterwards followed in the footsteps of Jacob Alting in 
Groningen, Heidegger in Zurich, Wittichius in Leyden, 
and Burman in Utrecht. 

In obedience to their instructions, and after their ex- 
ample, he contended for a free investigation of the 
Scripture, explaining it as /^understood it. Like these 
men he regarded the Bible as a deep sea from whose 
bed new pearls were to be gathered. From the disciples 
of Gomarus and Maresius, who clung to the utterances 
of the Synod of Dort, he stood aloof, and he strength- 
ened himself in his position upon the basis of Art. VII. 
of the Confession. Later he became independent even 
of the guides of his younger years. His sentiments he 
was wont to express in a Latin sentence which he fre- 
quently wrote in the album of a friend: " My friend, I 
do not adhere either to the old or to the new; whether 
it be the old or the new, if it be the truth, I love it." 

In 1685 he was called to the professorship of philoso- 



238 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

phy in the University of Franeker. He declared his 
acceptance of the appointment, on condition that he 
should be allowed to teach theology also. This was 
granted, and an addition was made to the nsnal salary. 
In 1 704 he was called to the chair of theology in Utrecht, 
He was already involved in the troubles occasioned 
by the promulgation of his rationalistic views. The 
States of Holland declared that they wonld persist in 
their opposition to him nntjl he withdrew his opinions. 
The churches of Gelderland and Over Yssel attempted 
to soften this spirit of hostility, but in vain. Roell 
taught in Utrecht fourteen years. He died in 1718. 

He held to the strange doctrine that the death of the 
saints is a punishment, by which the justice of God is 
satisfied in time. The judicial nature of it he main- 
tained on the ground that in the justification of God's 
people the punishment due to some of their sins only is 
remitted: and that their entire exemption from it is a 
fact only after the resurrection. This notion was re- 
sisted by many writers; but the interest in the question 
soon became lost in the greater excitement created by 
Roell's singular tenet in regard to the generation of the 
Son of God. 

The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son, as 
set forth in the Confession of the Reformed Church and 
the Heidelberg Catechism, he denied as being in utter 
conflict with reason. The book in which he presented 
his views on this topic was published in 1690. Some 
time before, when his treatise, " De Recta Ratiocina- 
tione" appeared, he had, by attributing too wide a lati- 
tude to the mere reason, given occasion to the orthodox 
to be on the watch against his publications as probable 
sources of danger to the Reformed Church. Huber, an 
eminent lawyer and a pious man, replied. The fact, 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



239 



however, that he was under censure by a Frisian synod 
because he had expressed himself as not opposed to danc- 
ing, detracting somewhat from his reputation for piety, 
weakened also, in the opinion of those of his own side, 
the influence which his book might have exerted. Eoell 
resisted the attack made upon him by Huber, and the 
strife became very fierce. The Synod of Friesland was 
disposed to proceed against Eoell, but the State inter- 
posed, forbade any ecclesiastical action in the matter, 
and enjoined silence upon both parties. 

In reference to the relation between the First and 
the Second Persons of the Trinity, designated in the Bi- 
ble by the phrase " the only begotten Son," Eoell la- 
bored to furnish a purer explanation than that furnished 
in the standards of the Church. The term "genera- 
tion," as it appears in these symbols, he could not en- 
dure, because, to his mind, it was not Scriptural, nor in 
accord with the perfection of the divine nature. 

Since the Son is coequal with the Father, He cannot 
be this in virtue of a generation or production. Such a 
conception is not possible, unless in the case of the Son 
there was a transition from non-existence to a state of 
being. The Father, too, must then have existed before 
the Son who was begotten of him. Moreover, the Son 
must be dependent on the Father from whom he is de- 
rived. The Son would then be less perfect than the 
Father; that is, he would not be divine. Thus reason- 
ing away the term " generation" — which he took in its 
first and obvious sense — from the doctrine of the Church, 
Eoell felt impelled to account for the phrase " Son of 
God." He did it in this manner: 

In the first place, he denied that the ground for this 
designation lay in the eternal presence of the Son with 
the Father* Terms expressive of a fraternal relation 



240 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

would be more appropriate to indicate this. If mere 
eternal presence be such ground, then the Son, or the 
Holy Ghost, is as well entitled to the name Father. 
Eoell therefore concluded that the true ground for the 
designation "Son of God" lay in the divine mission of 
Christ. The names "Christ" and "Son of God" were 
in the Scripture, he said, interchangeable terms (Matt, 
xxvi. 63; John xi. 27; John xx. 31), just as the names 
"King of Israel " and " Son of God" are (John i. 49). 
As the Christ, the promised King of Israel, Jesus was 
an extraordinary messenger from God; and thus, accord- 
ing to the manner of speaking usual among the Jews, 
he might emphatically be called the Son of God. 
Thus he could say of himself, " He who hath seen me 
hath seen the Father" (John xiv. 9). In this relation he 
must be less than the Father, as he said, "I go to my 
Father, and my Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 28). 
The relation between the Father and the Sou is that be- 
tween the Sender and the Sent who bears his image 
(Col. i. 15; Heb. i. 3). The ambassador was commis- 
sioned to reclaim the rebellious subjects; and to him 
authority had been given to protect and benefit those 
who had been reclaimed. God the Sender or the Father 
is the same in substance with God the Sent or his Son. 
The Sender, the Sent, and the Holy Spirit are one God 
in substance, eternity, independence, and immutability 
— the true God. 

The author of this clever, but by no means convincing, 
argument was charged with a leaning toward Arianism. 
Flinging back the charge, he sought to fasten it upon 
those who held the faith of the Reformed. His strongest 
opponent was Campegius Vitringa. This eminent man 
had been called to the professorship of theology at 
Franeker in 1682. He was a pupil of the celebrated 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



241 



Witsius. In his systematic theology, Doctrina Religionis 
Christiance, which is called the finest theological work 
of the seventeenth century, he is said to have avoided 
the Scylla and the Charybdis of the Aristotelian and the 
Cartesian philosophies. He replied to Roell in 1691. 
In his work he established the two propositions: 1. The 
Son, being the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is 
from eternity begotten of the Father. 2. This is the 
first and the chief reason why this Second Person of the 
Holy Trinity is called the Son. No one could depart, 
said Vitringa, from these positions without offending 
against the Eeformed Church. 

The conflict between the two men became very severe. 
At first the debate was conducted in the scholarly Latin, 
and then in the vernacular for the instruction of the 
common people. Roell issued his " Short and Simple 
Report of the Differences concerning the Generation of 
the Son." Vitringa replied with his "Short Statement 
of the Faith of the Universal Church concerning the 
Generation of the Son." The orthodox proposed to 
William III. that a synod should be convoked for the 
settlement of the points in dispute, but he refused to 
accede to the plan. Still Consistories, Classes, Synods, 
and even the magistrates were much incensed against 
Roell; and there was a loud demand that the placards 
issued against the Socinians should be enforced upon 
him. The States of Friesland, however, took a middle 
course. They adopted a decree commanding all profes- 
sors and ministers to refrain from discussing Roell's 
opinions. Upon himself they enjoined a strict silence 
in regard to them. 
21 



242 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



XL 

THE STATE OP THE CHURCH AT THE BEGINNING OF 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

When the pulpit is to a very large degree the only 
educational power of the community, it should resound 
with the truth delivered in its purity. But the effective- 
ness of the teachings of religion requires that its minis- 
ters should illustrate the vital force of them by their 
faithfulness to duty, their charity toward each other, 
and their heavenly-mindedness among the people of their 
charges. The absence of these essentials works great 
disaster to the Church. The salt loses its savor when 
the pastor and his flock become conformed, in one way 
and another, to the world. 

The condition of the Church during and at the close 
of this period of danger was most lamentable. The out- 
look for the friends of true religion was a very gloomy 
one. There was no lack of an external maintenance of 
the formulas and of exactness in doctrine. But, as there 
were hair-splitting dissensions about non-essentials, and 
a dangerous spirit of doubt was beginning to assert 
itself, there was but little of the preaching of the Gospel 
whereby alone the development of infidelity can be com- 
bated successfully, and faith, conversion, and the fruits 
worthy of a genuine repentance can be wrought. While 
there was a great solicitude in respect to dead forms, the 
soul of religion was departing from the schools in which 
the people were receiving their instruction. The depar- 



PEK10D OF DANGER. 



ture, from the Church, of its corrective virtue, and the 
consequent corruption of the morals of the community, 
reacted upon the Church in the increase of the danger 
lest it should become totally extinguished. 

Promiscuous congregations were frequently told from 
the pulpits that the Bible not seldom conforms to erro- 
neous popular notions, and that it is a dreadful thing to 
imagine that philosophy is of less service than theology. 
It was preached that the acquisition of the knowledge of 
the fixedness of the sun, and of the earth's motion around 
it, was an essential step heavenward; and that the con- 
tradiction of these plain facts was an exhibition of a 
lamentable ignorance concerning the true meaning of 
Psalm xix. 6. 

The services of the Sabbath were in many cases con- 
fined to those of the morning. Where two services on 
the Lord's day were nominally held, one of them was 
discontinued at least during the harvest season. Cate- 
chetical exercises were wholly neglected, or they were 
abandoned to the care of an inferior class of persons. 
The conflicts in regard to the observance of the Sabbath 
did much toward bringing the day into disrepute. In 
many cities Sundays were market-days, and the people 
labored as on week-days. The Lord's days were also 
desecrated by the holding of fairs and by the perform- 
ance of dramatic plays. Increased prosperity wrought 
luxury, and it was the foster-mother of worldliness, 
pride and licentiousness. 

Against these evils the Church availed but little. She 
herself had become corrupt. Even among the ministers 
the orthodox doctrine appeared to have lost its power 
and vitality. The system of salvation through free 
grace was to many of them a mere collection of well-or- 
ganized ideas; a treasure of the intellect in which the 



244 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

heart had no share; a dry skeleton destitute of spiritual 
life. The careful professors of the Gospel were only few 
in number. Some who were distressed by this condition 
of things addressed to the consistories complaints which 
were not heeded, or they sought refuge in private conven- 
ticles, and, on that account, were regarded with suspi- 
cion. The assent of the communicants to the doctrines 
of the Church did not spring from conviction, but was 
a blind subscription to the so-called creed of the multi- 
tude. Many doctrines were maintained with every show 
of acute learning, but, for all that, a decaying Church 
no more could aid, through the power of love for, and 
consecration to, the truth, in the true education of so- 
ciety. There seemed to be no use in insisting upon 
these doctrines when a feeling of interest, based upon a 
visible operation of them in the heart and upon the out- 
ward conduct, could not be enlisted in their behalf. The 
deliverance of the Church, and the triumph of the Word 
over the world, cannot be accomplished by means of cold 
and unfruitful polemics. 

Groen Van Prinsterer gives a picture of these times. 
"The seductive promises of philosophy were cherished. 
It seemed as though by the abolition of superstition and 
abuses, which it pretended to aim at, this philosophy 
could be brought, in the most splendid manner, into 
harmony with all that was most worthy of conservation. 
Henceforth there was to be a general religiousness, in 
which the superstition of Kome and the bigotry of Pro- 
testants would be lost; or else, in the mutual acceptance 
of the precepts of a moral nature, there would be a lov- 
ing and a fraternal toleration of the doctrines in regard 
to which the two parties had formerly stood opposed to 
each other in the spirit of a bitter hostility. The cause 
of true religion, it was said, would be the gainer when 



PERIOD OF DANGER. 



245 



universal philanthropy, far better than [a dead Chris- 
tendom, appeared as the representative of that which is 
truly lovely. In that the spirit of the Gospel was ig- 
nored,, there was a rejection of that submission to the 
Word of God which consists as much in obedience as in 
resisting that which opposes the Scripture. The value 
of the Reformation, it was thought in the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, lay, not in a believing and prayer- 
ful meditation on the Bible, but in a proud investigation 
of its contents and in the rejection of what were con- 
sidered the unsuitable parts of it. Hitherto, was the 
cry, our race was at the sport of fanaticism and violence, 
but henceforth it shall be led forward under the glorious 
banner of liberty and enlightenment, into the golden 
age of a genuine salvation. Nothing less than the re- 
naissance of the State and the Church, of social and 
political life, was aimed at by those who adopted the no- 
tions of the times. The schools and the pulpits were 
devoted to the extension of this product of philosophy 
and religion. Many who had never seen the shining of 
the real sun, thought that this sickly nicker of a short- 
lived flame was the rising of the dawn." 

The religious history of the nations, as well as their 
secular history, repeats itself. In the time of a general 
decline in spiritual things, Israel, warned by afflictive 
providences of the evil of their course, temporarily re- 
turned to God. So, also, the people of the Netherlands. 
The last quarter of the seventeenth century was a time 
of great anxiety. The very existence of the republic was 
placed in jeopardy. Strong enemies beset it on all sides. 
A day of fasting and prayer was appointed for May 4, 
1672. The first Wednesday of every month it was to be 
repeated. In some places prayer-meetings were held 
every evening. The churches were thronged. In Utrecht 



246 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

the aged Voetius continued his lectures. He encouraged 
the people by quoting a saying of Athanasius : " NuM- 
cula est, transibit." Ministers forgot their dissensions 
and endeavored to promote spirituality. In Friesland 
they joined in abandoning all that whereby their persons 
had become intolerable and their services useless. In 
Zeeland the attempt was made to make a covenant be- 
tween the politicians, the ecclesiastics, and the common 
people, to the effect that all would unite in serving the 
Lord. 

Alas, that this reform did not continue after the cloud 
of war had been scattered! The simple Word of God 
was once more set aside. All sorts of infidel theories 
were admitted. A dead orthodoxy was embraced. A 
philosophy which, based on the denial of God, yet car- 
ried a thin varnish of conscientiousness, was invoked to 
flatter pride and covetousness. Every bond of an au- 
thoritative revelation was torn asunder as though it were 
the chain of a despicable slavery. Man was deified be- 
cause, in the domain of faith, homage was paid to reason, 
and, in that of politics, to the sovereignty of the people. 

The period of danger seemed to be merging into that 
of decay and destruction. 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



0 Ss Kvpios to rtvzvfxa sfftiv ov 6e to Ttvevpia 
Kvpiov, sksT iXsvdspia. 



I. 



BEFORE AND AFTER THE MAIN" EVENT. 



The chief event of the last of the four periods into 
which I divide the history of the Eeformed Church in 
the Netherlands, is the separation between the Church 
and the State. The term transitional which I predicate 
of that period, relates to all that preceded, in the way of 
preparation, and to all that followed, in the way of con- 
sequence, the event which, occurring in 1795, is nearly at 
the centre of the century contained between the years 
1740 and 1840, and can be viewed properly only in the 
due consideration of that which led to it and of that 
which resulted from it. If it be asked if the condi- 
tion, to which the Church passed through its separation 
from the a State, is one of emancipation from the pressure 
of an unduly exercised civil authority, the answer is that 
the nearly semi-century that has elapsed since 1840, 
must grow into the completed cycle before that matter 
can be determined in the affirmative. Indeed, a longer 
time than that required to complete the twenty-first 
century of the Christian era may be necessary for the 
development of the idea of a total divorcement between 
the civil and the religious powers, which, cherished by 
the revolutionists of 1795, has been crystallized into an 
actual fact only in respect to the Reformed Church in 
America. How then shall the use of the term transi- 
tional in this connection be justified? In the expecta- 
tion that in the future the mother-Church shall yet 



250 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

attain unto the same degree of liberty which the 
daughter, in another hemisphere, enjoys in the land 
in which, in respect to her doctrine, her polity, her dis- 
cipline, her support, and her ethics, the Reformed Church 
pursues her course in entire independence of the civil 
government. 

And still, the freedom to which the mother-Church 
attained was not at last found to be so limited as to be 
despicable. In the acquisition of it there was a great step 
in advance, even though some godly men, denying this, 
have claimed in their writings that even a partial re- 
lease for the Church from the bonds of the civil authority, 
is in opposition to the powers that are ordained of God, 
and hence provokes his righteous anger. Nevertheless, 
it must be admitted that the loosening, to some degree, 
of the tie which had continued for more than two hun- 
dred years, was a blessing, though God brought it out to 
his people of the Reformed Church from among some of 
the most terrible evidences of human depravity. In that 
it is a blessing the reception and the right use of which 
mark the progress of the Church, it is a witness to the 
fact that God can make the wrath of man to praise him.. 

Although the State, in being deprived of that author- 
ity in the Church which it always valued and missed no 
opportunity of asserting, considered itself shorn of its 
just prerogatives, yet it contributed towards its own hu- 
miliation. It did this by its concessions and by its arro- 
gance. An example of the former is its treatment of a 
case of friction between the Jansenist and the Romish 
inhabitants of the land. In 1725 there had been ques- 
tion of appointing an apostolic vicar in the Netherlands. 
The former opposed the latter in the wish to have such 
an officer confirmed by the Pope. The government of 
the Netherlands took the part of the Jansenists, and 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



251 



when the Venetian ambassador asked that the matter 
might be decided against them, and the apostolic vicar 
admitted under the protection of the government, the 
following noble answer was returned: "In matters of 
religion, including those which relate to ecclesiastical 
discipline, there should be no coercion. In regard to these 
things every one is free to believe what he deems to be the 
most promotive of his salvation. We indeed judge that 
our form of religion is the best. We should be pleased 
to have all our subjects embrace it, but we cannot force 
any one. Let each profess the religion which to him is 
the best, provided he conduct himself like a good and 
faithful subject. Upon this ground we permit the 
religion of the Eoman Catholics, without concerning 
ourselves about their peculiar quarrels. We are for- 
bidden by the inviolable laws of our republic to use our 
authority in deciding these quarrels. Much less can we 
suffer an appeal to a strange authority for the purpose 
of forcing any to yield their opinions, or to submit to 
one who is styled the upper-shepherd. We are under 
obligation to protect both parties against persecution. 
We shall never permit the court of Eome to exercise an 
unlimited authority within our States." 

The sentiments expressed in this reply may now be 
seen standing in close relation to the event that occurred 
seventy years later, even though the utterance of them 
does not seem to intimate that they who held them, 
were disposed to yield one iota of their claims to exer- 
cise a political supervision over the Church and its 
affairs. These claims, indeed, were asserted frequently 
in a most arrogant manner, and persistence in them 
helped not a little towards bringing about what was 
regarded by many lovers of politico-ecclesiasticism as 
the catastrophe of 1795. In the very matter of the 



252 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

vicar, when, in 1732, the ministers of Holland, fearing 
that the government would yield to Jesuitical influence, 
sent in a petition, they were told not to disturb them- 
selves, and were put upon their guard against passing 
judgment upon the acts of the government in church 
affairs, since it was capable of deciding what ought to 
be done. Although since that year the doctrine of 
liberty in religion for all had been gaining ground, yet, 
as regards the Established Church, the State retained 
upon it the strong grasp which it was not disposed to 
relax. At different times the latter made its power felt. 
Ignoring the growth of the spirit of freedom which 
rendered men restive under any form of restraint, it 
aroused against itself an opposition, which ceased not 
until its temporary-overthrow, at least, was effected. 

Among the movements within the Church which 
tended in the direction of an independence of political, 
ecclesiastical, and alas! even divine authority were, in 
the first place, the frequent strange departures from the 
faith of the Eeformed Church as expressed in her sym- 
bols, and the commotions to which their detection and 
their defense by those whom they concerned gave rise. 
By means of the promulgation of these erratic opinions, 
the minds of men became unsettled, and, as a result of 
the bitterness with which these errors often were pursued, 
the people lost confidence in the faith which ought to 
work by love. "With the spirit of dissension which was 
cherished by many who yet deemed themselves to be 
actuated by zeal for the truth, a spirit of mutual tolera- 
tion came into sharp conflict. It was a toleration, 
however, which was not born of Christian charity, but 
a species of indifference as to what was believed, which 
really had its root in enmity to the truth as set forth in 
the standards of the Eeformed Church. The leaven 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



253 



introduced by Voltaire's work on "toleration in reli- 
gion" was pervading the minds of men. This kind of 
toleration the government fostered, not aware that by 
this course it was weakening its own claims. When a 
Olassis was faithful or bold enough to call to account 
any who had strayed from the true doctrine, the States 
threatened it with their displeasure and said that this 
disturbing heresy-hunting must cease. 

Most sad was the condition of the Netherlands when 
the torch of revolution, kindled in France, was brought 
over into them. No greater mistake ever was made 
by their people than when they took up the refrain of 
the cry, "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality/' It was the 
liberty in whose name, as Madame Roland on her way to 
the scaffold said, great crimes were committed. It was 
the fraternity and the equality which are synonymous 
with the worst kind of communism. Well might 
Van der Palm call these times days of wandering, and 
his son-in-law, N. Beets, compare them to an attack of 
fever and delirium. As faith became weak, doubt and 
unbelief grew apace. The wisdom of the age exalted 
man to be his own lawgiver. It proclaimed revelation 
a fraud, and God a superfluity if not a nonentity. The 
doctrines of the Eeformed Church were specimens of 
superstition and bigotry of which it must be purified. 
Rationalism and neology must soften the disagreeable 
tenets which hitherto had been held. 

By the application of this process the cardinal doc- 
trines of religion underwent a wondrous transformation. 
Election, the Trinity, justification by faith in Christ, 
were wholly rejected as absurd and dangerous to 
morality. The Deity of Christ is only his God-likeness. 
Original sin is merely a corruption of morals. Depra- 
vity is simply weakness. Regeneration is no more than 
22 



254 REFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHEELANDS. 

a moral improvement. Inspiration is only a higher 
degree of enlightenment. Geology shows that Moses was 
wrong. Anatomy and physics indicate the supremacy 
of matter. The progress of Greek literature shows that 
the New Testament is full of mistakes. 

If this was the treatment accorded to the doctrines of 
the Eeformed Church, how did it fare as an ecclesiasti- 
cal organization nnder the protection and the manage- 
ment of the State? The Church was regarded as a 
body which had outlived its use as a protest against 
the superstitions of Eome. Henceforth it was bound to 
protest equally decidedly against all narrow views, and 
must allow full liberty of investigation. Ecclesiasticism 
must be set aside as a needless antiquated form. Like 
a worn-out garment it must be cast out of sight. In 
the universally recognized freedom of man there is no 
more any occasion for a Church, or a sect specially privi- 
leged by the State. Let the education of the people for 
the future be based upon a general religiosity and upon 
the principles of a universal toleration. 

As these opinions became wide-spread, the diminu- 
tion of the supply of the ministry was the natural result. 
A committee appointed by the Classis of Amsterdam in 
1789, reported that in the country and its colonies there 
were 1650 congregations. There were annually seventy 
vacancies. Instead of 400 licentiates needed to supply 
them, there were only 200 to be found in all the uni- 
versities combined. 

It is a mistaken idea that the deterioration which has 
been outlined, was effected at once, or that it instantly per- 
vaded the whole body of the people. Down to the period 
when the French revolution-ideas entered the land, the 
masses still revered the Bible. Cats and Brakel were 
favorite authors on religious topics. Translations of 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



255 



Newton's Cardiphonia and of Doddridge's works were 
much read. Attempts were made, before and after the 
Revolution, to stem the tide of infidelity which threat- 
ened on all sides. Men arose who were like beacon- 
lights sending their cheering rays into the gathering 
gloom. Lecture-courses were founded in defence of the 
truth. In 1753 Stolp founded such a course by giving 
10,000 florins, the interest of which was to be bestowed 
on the person who delivered the best essay on certain 
given topics. In 1788, Yan der Hulst, of Haarlem, did 
the same. About that time, also, a minister was appointed 
to preach annually at Rotterdam six sermons against the 
innovations of the times. A number of ministers 
belonging to the Synod of South Holland founded an 
association at the Hague by which prizes were offered 
for the best discussions of most important themes. The 
mention of some of them throws light upon the character 
of the infidelity against which they were directed: 1788 
— The genuineness of the G-ospel of Matthew; 1796 — 
The indispensableness of Christ's resurrection; 1797 — 
Jesus Christ, the principal subject of Bible-teaching; 
1799 — The histories of the New Testament confirmed 
from the writings of Creek and Roman authors; 1800 — 
The reality of Christ's miracles; 1801 — The difference 
between the teachings of Christ and those of his apostles; 
1807 — The essentialness of the facts of Christianity; 1808 
— The reality of the raising of Lazarus; 1809 — The cer- 
tainty of Christ's resurrection. 

Cod who has his Church under his care preserved 
even during the awful times of the French revolution, 
also in the Netherlands, the seven thousand who did 
not bow the knee to Baal. 

In this fourth and last series we propose to treat of the 
following themes: Internal commotions; Arrogance of the 



256 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

State; The situation just before the revolution; Sep- 
aration between the- Church and the State; The Church 
in its independence; The Church and the kingdom; 
The controversy quia — quatenus; The " Church under 
the Cross;" Keflections on the past for the future. 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



II. 

INTEKNAL COMMOTIONS. 

When, a short time before the Revolution, Walter 
Senserf, of Rotterdam, founded a course of lectures on 
Atheism, Deism, Heathenism, Judaism, and Mahome- 
tanism, he introduced in the terms of his gift the con- 
dition, that in the discussion of these themes there 
should be no allusion to the dissensions by which Chris- 
tians were alienated from each other. Of these internal 
and suicidal conflicts the Reformed Church had its 
share. While they had their immediate occasion in the 
setting forth of exceedingly strange notions, which were 
wholly at variance with the teachings of Scripture and 
with the faith of the Reformed Church, they were made 
capable of exerting an influence toward the spread of 
indifferentism, in that they who combated them did not 
always act from the purest motives. The apparent zeal 
of the latter too often grew out of a stiff and narrow- 
minded attachment to the letter of the symbols and a 
purpose to detect error where there really was none* 
Hence the conflict was begun in a partisan spirit rather 
than in a love of the truth. It was conducted with bit ■ 
terness instead of Christian charity. The Church was 
distracted, and the minds of men, becoming unsettled, 
were all the more receptive of the seeds of French infi- 
delity, which in the Netherlands bore, and still bears^ 
dreadful fruit. In nature the crystallizing process can 
go forward only in quiet. Rude commotions are inimU 



258 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

cal also to the formation of the Christian character and 
the development of the spiritual life of the Church. A 
view of some of the debates by which the cause of reli- 
gion at this time was injured is not without interest. 

A discussion upon the theme whether a falsehood 
might be uttered in time of need, and whether God had 
given an example of it, centred upon the person of the 
celebrated preacher Jacques Saurin. In 1728 he pub- 
lished a book in which he expressed himself in such a 
manner that he was regarded as holding an affirmative 
opinion. He was summoned to answer before a Walloon 
synod in 1730. Disclaiming the views charged against 
him, he appealed to his catechism of 1722. When re- 
quired to sign a statement that he would teach nothing 
else on that subject than what was contained in his cat- 
echism, he refused on the ground that he would not be 
so bound by the letter. He drew up another statement 
of his tenets which he could subscribe. It proved satis- 
factory, and the controversy came to an end. 

In the same year that Saurin's catechism was jmb- 
lished appeared a little volume by Van Thuynen, en- 
titled " Short exposition of the faith of the Keformed." 
The author seems to have confounded the assurance of 
faith with simple faith. They whose minds are not free 
from doubt, he taught, are without faith altogether. 
He based his opinions on Lord's Day VII of the Hei- 
delberg Catechism. Some sustained him; others op- 
posed him. At last, in 1726, a certain visitor of the 
sick, named Groenewoud, published a book in which he 
attempted to unite both parties by proposing a middle 
course. He made a distinction between faith and be- 
lieving. The former he stated to be the soul's disposi- 
tion to believe; the latter, that disposition in actual ex- 
ercise. The book received an indirect commendation 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



259 



from the theological faculty of Leyden, on the ground 
that it contained much tending to edification. 

Seven years later Paulus Maty set forth a species of 
Arianism. He taught that there are indeed three dis- 
tinct Persons in the Trinity, but that all the Deity is in 
the First Person, who, therefore, is the Father. By him, 
before the creation of the world, two beings were pro- 
duced, intelligent yet finite, and closely related to him 
in a union which entitles them to the names of Son and 
Holy Spirit. Maty was opposed by De la Ohapelle and 
Van Driessen. In 1730 he was deposed from the minis- 
try. He left the Reformed Church and joined the Re- 
monstrants. 

This same indefatigable champion, Van Driessen, also 
attacked the celebrated Venema and Engelhard. The 
former held to a duplex purpose of election. There is 
a general purpose by which God determined that every 
one, without distinction, who believed and repented, 
would be saved; and also a particular purpose, by which 
God intended his grace for some, and chose them to the 
exercise of faith and repentance as well as to salvation. 
An effort appears to have been made to unite the Cal- 
vinistic and the Remonstrant views on that subject. As 
he also differed from the Reformed Church on the doc- 
trines of Original Sin and the Satisfaction by Christ, Van 
Driessen proposed to the faculty of the University of 
Groningen, in 1736, that, in accordance with a resolu- 
tion of the Classis, it should be suggested to the next 
approaching Provincial Synod, that henceforth, all who 
within the bounds of the Classes belonging to the Synod 
should be admitted to the ministry, must have certain 
questions asked them relating to these doctrines, and 
must solemnly denounce the prevailing errors concern- 
ing them. One professor resisted. The questions were 



260 REFORMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

formulated. The address containing them, signed by 
three professors, was forwarded to the political deputies 
for their approval. The States, however, refused to en- 
tertain the matter. 

In 1734 Engelhard was attacked because he favored 
the Leibnitz- Wolffian philosophy. Its representations 
concerning the origin of evil, that God had created, out 
of an infinite number of conceivable worlds, one world 
in which the evil was mixed with the good, Van Dries- 
sen strongly opposed, as also its tenets concerning the 
indivisible and universal principles of things, and a pre- 
established harmony according to which the operations 
of the spirit and the motions of the body are in perfect 
harmony. The University of Utrecht approved of this 
philosophy, so that in 1740 Wolff was invited to a chair 
in that institution. 

In 1741 Peter Ens, a Curator of the academy at Har- 
derwyk, manifested erroneous views concerning the 
Trinity, According to him, there is but one Person, 
the Supreme Father. He also went astray concerning 
the Divine Essence. God, he said, has no knowledge 
from eternity of future events. God's purposes are 
changeable, and so are his acts, because His passions are 
aroused by external objects. God's grace can be resisted, 
so that true believers can fall from it. Ens was sus- 
pended from the communion by the Consistory of the 
Church at Harderwyk. 

Six years later Bernsau endeavored to bring reason 
and revelation into agreement, and to produce, as a re- 
sult, what he called "Analogia, sive harmonia fidei." 
He claimed that well-instructed reason is aided by a su- 
pernatural enlightening of the Holy Ghost, and, thus 
illumined, becomes the only and the best instrument of 
reaching a sure knowledge of theology. 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



261 



During the following year a new disturbance grew 
out of the teachings of Van der Os, a minister at Zwol. 
He was accused of Arianism, Remonstrantism, and So- 
cinianism. He declared that in the conception of a suc- 
cession of correlated things pertaining to the renewal of 
a soul, justification is posterior to faith. He claimed 
that the generation of the Son could not be proven from 
Micah v. 2, Ps. ii. 7, and John v. 26. The death men- 
tioned in Gen. iii., he averred, is only that of the body, 
not spiritual and eternal death. Only the sinner's per- 
sonal sins, he asserted, constitute the ground of his con- 
demnation. The Consistory laid an interdict upon this 
ministry. Through the intervention of the faculty of 
Leyden, who had prepared a paper which they proposed 
for his signature, further trouble would have been avert- 
ed, were it not that the Classes of Zwol and the Consis- 
tories of Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam, and 
Utrecht became involved in the controversy, and that 
Van der Os preached a sermon in which he maintained 
that the Scripture is the only rule of faith, and that the 
Dordracene fathers did not intend that their utterances 
should remain unalterable, but left, for a period of more 
light, the improvements upon their statements which 
might be found necessary. Although Van der Os signed 
a Confession of faith that was laid before him, he refused 
to step aside from his opinion concerning the intention 
of the framers of the Canons of Dort. He was there- 
upon deposed from the ministry. The sentence was ap- 
proved by the Synod and the States of Over Yssel. 

Schortinghuis was a mystic. He held that man needs 
a spiritual knowledge, which he derives immediately 
from God. It is distinct from that which is derived 
from the Scripture. Without the former, man is not 
capable of doing anything. The manner of obtaining 



262 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

it is wholly within the spheres of the emotions and the 
senses. The government condemned the book in which 
these opinions were set forth. It nevertheless had 
many readers. Among these were a number who were 
under the excitement following the ministry of Grerardus 
Kuypers. This man, while still a candidate, preached 
one day in Amsterdam for one of the pastors. The ef- 
fect was very marked. His eloquent appeals to the feel- 
ings of the people created a great stir. His preaching 
at Jutphaas, and afterwards at Nykerk, in which places 
he settled as pastor, had the same result. Some persons 
gave expression to the excitement under which they la- 
bored, in loud shouts, and some even fell prostrate in 
unconsciousness. The intelligence of these unusual 
scenes spread throughout the land. It drew out diverse 
opinions. Some approved, others condemned. The 
Romanists laughed. Those who did not ridicule pro- 
nounced it a work of the devil. There is no doubt that 
then, as in other times and in other places, persons were 
present who sought to impose by means of affected evi- 
dences of a religious interest. In 1750 a resolution was 
adopted and carried into effect, that all those who mani- 
fested such bodily contortions should be ejected from 
the churches. After this the meetings became much 
calmer. 

In 1765, Grerardus T. De Cock, minister at Harig, in 
Friesland, was accused of holding heretical opinions. 
He was said to teach that it was G-od's eternal purpose 
to save all men; that all men still possess the divine im- 
age; that the love which the Lord enjoins in John xv. 
17, must be understood as intended to be of universal 
application, and to be shown to all, whatever their reli- 
gious views might be. De Cock denied that he held the 
third opinion. Nevertheless, the Classis was in favor 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



263 



of disciplining him. The government interfered, osten- 
sibly for the sake of the peace of the Church. An ap- 
peal to the Stadtholder had no fruit, for the reason that 
the nobles frustrated all the efforts of the Olassis. 

Besides the contentions gathering around the doc- 
trines, there were those in that restless period which re- 
lated eyen to the liturgy. In Groningen, Utrecht, and 
Monnikendam there were hot debates concerning the 
use or the suppression of the question s«that occur in the 
form for the baptism of infants. The church authori- 
ties were strongly in favor of their continued use. The 
magistrates were not at all disposed to concur in this 
opinion. 

" Unstable as water thou shalt not excel." These 
dissensions weakened the Church. They prepared it to 
yield when the hosts of indifferentism and infidelity 
came in like a flood. Howbeit, God has always a few 
who courageously uphold the banner of His Truth. 



264 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



ARROGANCE OF THE STATE. 

Illustrating the extent to which the political power 
interfered in Church matters, even to within a short 
time of the separation between the Church and the 
State, is the case of Cornelius Blom, minister in Leeu- 
warden. The account is interesting also for the reason 
that, besides showing how great were the difficulties in 
the way of the advocates of the independence of the 
Church in matters ecclesiastical, it informs us, more 
distinctly than a mere statement could do, of the cus- 
toms and usages of the Church at that time. 

In the year 1763 there was a vacancy in the before- 
mentioned city. When the magistrates, according to 
the law in such a case, extended to the Consistory what 
was called the "hand opening," or permission to nomi- 
nate the persons from whom a pastor was to be selected 
after the magisterial approval of such nominations had 
been secured, they signified to that body their desire 
that a Frisian, of Cocceian shade of opinion in theology, 
might be called to fill the pulpit. They were probably 
urged to express this desire by their knowledge of the 
fact, of which the Consistory also was aware, that it was 
the wish of the Princess Maria Louisa, the widow of the 
Stadtholder, that the choice might fall upon E. W. 
Schrader, of Sneek, who was a Frisian by birth, a 
Cocceian in theology, and a pupil of Venema. Instead 
of respecting this preference, the Consistory submitted 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



265 



to the magistrates, for their approval, three names among 
which was not that of Schrader. The consequence was 
that the magistrates took no action upon them. The 
Consistory waited six months, and then sent to the 
magistrates a committee, consisting of a minister, an 
elder, and a deacon, with the request that the expected 
approval might be forthcoming. The name of the min- 
ister was Cornelius Blom. 

On August 26 the committee performed its duty. 
Blom presented a manly address. " The Consistory/' 
he said, "is an independent college. The request that 
the magistrates would approve the nominations of the 
Consistory is a mere concession. The respected authori- 
ties should remember that they are only the guardians 
of the Church. The Church is the child of God. God 
commended that child to their protection. They must 
guard it. They must defend it against injury. They 
were taught this by the example of Cyrus and Darius, 
and also by that of Mahomet, who, though they were 
unbelievers, were nevertheless the generous protectors of 
God's Church. So also were Constantine the Great, 
Theodoras the Younger, the Palatine Frederic the 
Third, William the First, Prince Maurice, and others. 
Since they were scarcely the shadows of these great 
men, it became them all the more to endeavor to 
imitate them. See to it that, as regards your conduct 
toward the Church, you may be able to say at some 
time : We have not served any idols ; we have not been 
the slaves of men ; we love the honor of God more than 
that of men." 

The keynote of the protest against political presump- 
tion, which is more than implied in this address, had 
already been sounding for some years. In 1682 W. 
Brakel had spoken against the arrogance of the magis- 
23 



266 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

trates in suspending and deposing ministers ; and again 
in 1688, he had raised his yoice against the claim of the 
civil power in Kotterdam, to approve or to disapprove a 
call extended to a minister by the Consistory of a church 
in that city. The same line of argument then pursued 
by Brakel, was followed by Blom in this case. 

The magistrates of Leeuwarden praised the address 
and commended the Consistory for their zeal in behalf 
of the welfare of the Church. They promised that the 
desired approval of the nominations should no longer be 
withheld. 

When in the evening of the same day Blom reported 
to the Consistory, among whose elders were three of the 
magistrates, he read to that body the address which he 
had presented. It was received with favor and ordered 
placed upon the minutes. This action becoming known 
to the public, and a desire to read the address spreading 
among the citizens, Blom published it. But now the 
tide of favor turned. The author was decried as a bold 
opponent of the magistrates. Men compared him to 
Donatus. The magistrates took a .different view of the 
case, and considered themselves to have been grievously 
wronged. They imposed a heavy fine upon the writer 
and the printer of the address. 

Two days after was Bloom's regular turn to officiate 
in the church. He selected the text Eccl. iii. 16 : "And 
moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment 
that wickedness was there ; and the place of righteous- 
ness that iniquity was there." The large audience pres- 
ent, imagining that the preacher was about to launch 
out against the government, wondered at his temerity 
and feared the consequence for him. Blom, however, 
made no personal allusions, but confined himself to a 
general application. 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



267 



On the Tuesday following he was summoned before 
the magistrates. Upon the plea of his having numerous 
engagements as a minister of Jesus Christ, he refused to 
appear. He trusted that, as the magistrates were in 
"the place of righteousness," they would excuse him. 
In the evening, however, he obeyed. Very dignified 
was his mien as he walked toward the hall where the 
magistrates were in session. Under his arm he carried 
a folio Bible. Throngs of people surrounded him. One 
man even grasped his hand. " Only be quiet," he ex- 
claimed, " God will take care of his Church and of me." 
Having appeared before the magistrates, he began his 
defense. He was silenced. The resolution imposing 
the fine was read to him, and a copy placed in his hands. 
He then declared that he would not submit to it except 
by consent of the Consistory by whom he had been 
deputed. 

At eight o'clock the great Consistory met. Blom 
related what had occurred and read the resolution. 
Sympathy was expressed, the address was once more 
acknowledged, and a resolution adopted to appeal to a 
higher tribunal. In this action, however, the oldest 
minister present and one of the magisterial elders did 
not concur. This was the first indication that Blom's 
position would soon prove to be untenable, not through 
the weakness of his cause, but the faithlessness of his 
friends. But as yet he was supported. A paper defend- 
ing his address, accompanied by a petition from himself, 
was forwarded to the States of Friesland as to the high- 
est court. It was claimed in these documents that the 
entire government of the Church, hence also the calling 
of ministers, pertains to Consistories, Classes, and Synods; 
that all other powers, among which the political, are 
excluded from the exercise of authority in the Church ; 



268 REFORMED CHTTRCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



that the ecclesiastical power is not responsible in respect 
to anything whatsoever, to any one in the world, but 
alone to G-od and Christ ; that the authorities in the 
Church have God only for their Judge, and that, in 
virtue of their position, they are above any worldly 
authority. The papers sent to the States, moreover, 
expressed the opinion that an unjust sentence had been 
pronounced against Blom. As soon as these documents 
had been forwarded, Blom, who had composed them, 
but had submitted them to only a few members of the 
committee to whom this matter had been entrusted, 
published them. Ten members of the great Consistory 
then inserted in the newspaper a card stating that they 
did not adopt these opinions, and that they withdrew 
their support from Blom. The clouds over the cham- 
pion for the rights of the Church began to thicken. 

The magistrates of the city, on the other hand, had 
also sent in a petition. They begged the States to sustain 
the civil power in respect to church matters. Three 
charges were also preferred, against Blom, specifying his 
rebellious conduct, his holding extravagant opinions on 
the subject of church prerogatives, and his having in- 
sulted the magistrates. 

On January 13, 1764, the States responded. The 
magistrates were sustained. Blom was suspended from 
his ministry for six weeks, with loss of salary during' 
that time. 

It is almost incredible that shortly afterwards the 
Classis of Leeu warden took action, "disapproving, ab- 
horring, and. decidedly rejecting" the position of Blom 
as denned in his paper to the States. The Classis 
desired to crush out these symptoms of anti-Erastianism.. 
It was led in this course by Petrus Wiger, minister at 
Oosthem, who offered a paper which was adopted. He 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 269 

• 

advocated the following points : The ciyil power cannot 
be excluded from the government of the Church; it has 
the right, as the case may be, to confirm by its authority 
the ecclesiastical proceedings, or to disapprove them, for 
the best interests of the Church ; it may prescribe laws 
with reference to ecclesiastical persons and matters for 
the promotion of order in the Church ; it has the 
original right to elect, either by itself or by a suitable 
delegate, a fit person for the office of the ministry in 
any place. 

In so far as the supply of the vacant pulpit at Leeu- 
warden is concerned, there was a compromise. The 
magistrates gave up Schrader, and the Consistory with- 
drew the first set of nominations. Three other minis- 
ters had been nominated by the Consistory in the 
preceding December and approved by the magistrates. 
One of these received the call. 

The whole affair seems to have been to the credit of 
Blom, and to the discredit of the men who failed in 
standing by their convictions, and who left the advocate 
of the independence of the Church against the arrogance 
of the State in the lurch as soon as they feared that 
their course in sustaining him would bring them to 
grief. 



270 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IV. 

THE SITUATION JUST BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 

In the course of the twenty-five years that preceded 
the great political and ecclesiastical turning of 1795, 
the people of the Netherlands became divided, in respect 
to the State, into three parties, and in respect to the 
Church, into two. The political divisions were com- 
posed: the first, of those who favored the Prince of 
Orange and the established authority of the Stadtholder; 
the second, of the Aristocrats who, in the interest of the 
magistracy, wished to be relieved of the pressure of the 
Stadtholderate; the third, of democrats who desired a 
popular government upon the American model. These 
last were of the violent and of the mild types. The 
ecclesiastical divisions were composed: the first, of those 
who remained attached to the old forms of theology, to 
the long-established ecclesiastical usages, and to the 
time-honored union between the Church and the State, 
They were the conservatives, were greatly in the mi- 
nority, and became entirely swallowed up iu the whirl- 
pool the power of whose suction they soon found them- 
selves utterly unable to resist. The second division was 
composed of the advocates of liberty in religion and of a 
universal tolerance. They objected to the use that was 
made of the Bible as it was searched for texts to uphold 
dogmas that had already been framed. They would 
have it examined with an impartial mind for the dis- 
covery of the truth it contains. Let the bonds of scho- 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



271 



lasticism, said they, which in earlier days held the spirit 
of interpretation rigidly confined, be relaxed. They 
aimed at a pure Biblical culture, as they represented it, 
and, to the restoration of the Apostolic mode of teaching, 
the design of which was rather the ingathering of souls 
into the Kingdom than the upholding of certain reli- 
gious symbols of human construction. The union be- 
tween the Church and the State was particularly objec- 
tionable to them. They regarded it as a confusion 
which, the sooner it came to an end, the better. Uni- 
versal toleration and equality were to them conditions 
of an enlightened society. In their estimation morality 
was a good thing, but the doctrinal part of religion, 
which had given occasion for so much strife, was super- 
fluous and only fostered a spirit of bigotry. They per- 
ceived the impossibility of at once abolishing the hoary 
Standards of the Church behind which intolerance lay 
entrenched. Reform the Church within the Church, 
they cried; move forward gently — but triumph in the 
end. 

These parties in the Church and the State were not, 
as to the persons who composed them, numerically dis- 
tinct organizations. The sentiments which they repre- 
sented, coming in from abroad, and finding the condi- 
tion of the national mind favorable for their reception 
•and growth, had also been taken up by degrees. The 
process of their incorporation with the general thought, 
and of their formation into partisan principles, had 
been gradual. Nor did the political differences of opin- 
ion, and, on the other hand, the ecclesiastical, remain, 
respectively, within their own exclusive domains. Par- 
ties in the State affiliated with congenial parties in the 
Church. Thus the patriots, as the advocates of politi- 
cal independence were fond of styling themselves, found 



272 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

their allies among those who in the Church desired to 
throw oS all restraint, whether, as regards the faith, 
arising from the Standards, or, as regards the polity, from 
the civil government. Desiring to reorganize the State 
upon republican principles, they had the sympathy of 
those in the Church who desired that the house of God 
should be similarly independent. They hated the 
Prince of Orange no worse than their ecclesiastical as- 
sociates disliked the authoritative masters of Biblical in- 
terpretation. The Orange-men, on the other hand, as 
their opponents came to be called, had their adherents 
also in the Church. 

It is no wonder that both parties sought to arouse the 
people at large, each to his own views, by means of all 
kinds of publications. In these the discussions of the 
points at issue were frequently exceedingly bitter. In- 
temperate expressions were used, as for instance, when 
the Princes of Orange were called " arch-oppressors of 
Bat avian liberty." In another pamphlet a regent, a 
prince, a stadtholder, or any magistrate, whoever he 
might be, was said to be less than the whole people, and 
that the nation as one man must rise up against the 
Stadtholder. The bare jDroposition has certainly more 
of an insurrectionary than a logical aspect. Nor is it 
surprising that, blended together as were the political 
malcontents and those whom ambition made restive in 
the Church, the signs of a revolutionary discord should 
appear in the pulpits and in church meetings. 

The first outburst of this spirit at an ecclesiastical 
assembly, was in 1783, at the session of the Classis of 
Dokkum in Friesland. It was an attempt to drop, 
from the Classical proceedings, a lemma relating to 
the recognition of the highest civil authority in the 
land. In 1766 the General Synod had resolved that 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



273 



whenever the Stadtholder should honor it with his 
presence, it should take an action, congratulating him 
upon his investiture with his high office, and commend- 
ing to his care the interests of the Church. Hence 
a lemma was introduced entitled, " Paying respect 
to His Illustrious Highness." Eight years later the 
name of the lemma was changed into " Orange-Nas- 
sau/' and under it this form became customary, "All 
Correspondents, Deputies and Classes rejoice in the 
prosperity of this Illustrious House and desire its per- 
manent welfare." 

When the Classis of Dokkum attacked this lemma in 
1783, it started a great commotion. It based its protest 
against it upon its illegality, because it had been intro- 
duced into Synodical proceedings without its previously 
having been submitted to the Classes; and also, because 
it only honored the Stadtholder and made no mention 
of the States who were his superiors. It Avas proposed 
therefore, that the lemma should be changed into " The 
States of Friesland and the Prince Stadtholder/' When 
the matter came before the Synod of that year, the po- 
litical deputies declared that, according to a resolution 
of the States, the proposition of the Classis of Dokkum 
could not be discussed. The Classis thereupon informed 
the Synod that it had dropped the lemma from its 
schedule of proceedings. When this information 
reached the Synod, the deputies forbade the reading of 
it, and ordered all Classes to refrain from such strifes 
about words. The Classis then appealed to the States 
themselves, requesting that the deputies might be 
directed to permit the Synod to discuss the lemma. The 
result was that the States consented, and announced to 
the Synod that they would be pleased to have the lemma 
entitled: " Prayer for the grace and the blessing of the 



274 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

Lord, upon the States of Friesland, His Highness the 
Stadtholder, the family of his Highness, and upon 
all colleges." The lemma was adopted by the Synod of 
1784 ad referendum. In 1785 it was approved by the 
different Classes. This was ten years before the separa- 
tion between the Church and the State. 

These events evidently brought about that ministers 
henceforth openly took sides in their pulpits. Accord- 
ing as one party, or the other, was at the head, the ad- 
herents of the opposite party suffered. Bulthuis, the 
minister at Sneek, was an Orange-man. The patriots 
punished him with a fine of 500 florins. The offense of 
which he was convicted was that " he had expressed 
himself, both in his sermons and in his prayers, in a 
manner calculated to inform the congregation of his po- 
litical opinions; and that with the same intent, he had per- 
verted several texts of the Bible, instead of behaving as 
the mouthpiece of the people in the presence of God." 
When in 1787 the Orange party temporily gained the 
upper hand, the fine was remitted, and many of the pa- 
triot ministers were made to feel the change. 

The seeds of infidelity which were carried over into 
the Netherlands from France, found a ready soil there. 
The seductive raillery of Voltaire and the doubting 
speculations of Kousseau were greedily welcomed. The 
hospitality of the land was abused by the freethinkers 
of all types, who made it their home and published there 
the books which they could not print in France, Ger- 
many, or England. And what was the secret spirit 
which, notwithstanding a seeming external reverence for 
the Church, pervaded the community? Bahrdt relates 
that in 1777 he was present at one of the weekly Friday- 
evening meetings of a club of fifty members, associated 
for the ostensible purpose of considering questions of 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



275 



philosophy and science. As he entered, Lafontaine, a 
lawyer, seventy years old, addressed him, " Tell us, are 
there still people in your country who believe in the Tri- 
unity?" The inquiry gave occasion for the utterance of 
all sorts of satires against the faith of the Church and 
the tyranny of priestcraft. Everywhere they who laid 
claims to civilization and enlightenment, attempted to 
to embody their peculiar ideas in a corresponding prac- 
tice. Saturated with the spirit of the French philoso- 
phy of these terrible times; dazzled by the splendor 
of the promises offered by the high-sounding sys- 
tem of liberty, fraternity and equality; imagining that 
they had the power of so regulating and limiting the 
application of these ideas that the best interests of the 
people might be promoted by them; they who attempted 
to shape and control public opinion, were at rivalry 
among themselves as to who should the most loudly 
praise, and the soonest adopt, the theories the develop- 
ment of which to a fearful issue proved their own over- 
throw. 

In 1793 a war began between the Netherlands and 
France. It lasted two years. At the end of it the 
march toward the Low Countries, of French ideas, was 
followed by the march thither of French soldiers, and 
the planting within the provinces of the tricolor flag. 



276 REFORMED CHUECH IN THE NETHERLANDS, 



Y. 

THE STATE DIVORCED FKOH THE CHURCH. 

The winter of 1794-5 was unusually severe. Consid- 
erable streams, and even rivers and estuaries, were covered 
with a solid crust of ice. A firm path was provided for 
the victorious French soldiers, over which they marched 
into the Netherlands. They were welcomed as brothers 
and as the saviours of the country. Shouts of joy rent 
the air; .feasts were spread; liberty-poles, decorated with 
tricolor ribbons, were erected; tricolor flags were flung 
to the breeze j processions filled the streets; orators cele- 
brated the glorious events; citizens and citizenesses ex- 
changed congratulations. The anticipated revolution 
became a fact. The Prince Stadth older and all his family 
departed for England on Jan. 18, 1795, and the States 
were dissolved. The principles of absolutism — " Je 
crois un Etre Supreme — and of liberalism — " La loi est 
atliee" — had reached their development. The pro- 
visional representatives of the people met on Jan. 25. 
They decided that the preference of one ecclesiastical 
association above another was an injustice. They issued 
a manifesto containing these two propositions: 1. Every 
person has the right to worship G-od in accordance with 
his own wishes in the matter, without coercion; 2. 
Since all men are equal, all are eligible to any office or 
service, without needing any qualifications therefor 
-other than morality and capacity. 

On the last day of this same month there was a pro- 
clamation at the Hague of the recognition of the natural 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 277 

rights of every man. Liberty in religion was loudly 
called for. The dissolution of the relation between the 
State and an Established Church, which, it was said, 
had been the source of innumerable evils, was urgently 
demanded. In respect to matters of religion the revolu- 
tion effected an entire change in the condition of the 
country. The conceptions formed by the triumphant 
party concerning liberty, equality and fraternity, in- 
volved an abolition of all the privileges which the Ee- 
formed Church had enjoyed as the recognized Church 
of the land. The proclamation issued by the assembly 
of the provisional representatives of Friesland, con- 
vened on Feb. 21, set forth the ideas embodied in the 
act of separating the Church from the State, 5 in the least 
objectionable form. "Taking nothing to heart so 
much," said they, " as the promotion of the weightiest 
and the dearest interests of the Frisian people which 
were entrusted to us, and the maintenance of the noblest 
rights of the man and the citizen, we hereby solemnly 
declare that we will support every one, whomsoever, in 
the unrestrained liberty of his conscience and in the un- 
disturbed exercise of his religion, without permitting 
any coercion or hindrance; provided, however, that no 
one shall be allowed either to abuse this inalienable right 
of every rational creature, or to hurt his fellow-man; 
much less that any should be suffered, in the guise of 
this sacred freedom, to kindle the fires of strife, division, 
and rebellion, whereby the interests of the country and 
of liberty are jeopardized. The provisional representa- 
tives of the Frisian people shall regard and treat all 
teachers and others, of whatsoever religion, who may 
become guilty of this, as the enemies of their country 
and the disturbers of the peace and security the strict 
preservation of which they take to heart so much." 
U 



278 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

The independence of what was called the Batavian re- 
public was acknowledged by the French on April 26. 
This was not done gratuitously. Flanders, Limburg, 
Venlo, and Maastricht were ceded to France. G-arrisons 
were placed in several cities, and the land was mulcted 
in the sum of 1,000,000 francs. 

The National Assembly met at the Hague on March 
1, 1796, in the palace formerly occupied by the Stadt- 
holder. It was a meeting of great importance. The 
independent sovereignty of the several provinces was 
absorbed in the unification of the country. Of the one 
hundred and twenty-four deputies who constituted the 
assembly, ninety were present. They were seated at 
four long tables which ran the length of the apartment, 
and were covered with green cloth. A large, elaborate- 
ly carved armchair had been placed for the president. 
At the right of it was a rostrum for the orators. Pri- 
vate boxes, destined for the foreign ambassadors, were 
at the opposite end of the hall. The galleries at the 
sides were reserved for the public. 

After the States-General had formally resigned the 
government into the hands of the National Assembly, 
it proceeded to the election of a President. Citizen 
Peter Paulus was almost unanimously elected. Eighty 
of the ninety votes were cast for him. Arrayed in a 
tricolor sash, he was solemnly conducted to the chair. 
" In the name of the people," said he, " I declare this 
Assembly to be the representative body of the Nether- 
lands." Great applause, taken up by the crowd outside, 
followed the utterance of this sentence. Trumpets 
sounded and cannons were fired. 

By this convention a system of civil regulations was 
projected, according to which the Church was separated 
from the State. No special benefit, it was declared, 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



279 



could accrue from the profession of any particular re- 
ligion. It was announced that all associations, estab- 
lished in the interest of religion, stood before the law 
upon the same leyel. 

The shock given by this edict to the politico-ecclesi- 
astical establishment that had stood for more than two 
hundred years, was so severe, that it is not surprising 
that for some time it was not understood what disposi- 
tion should be made of the matters which it was easy to 
foresee would instantly present themselves for adjust- 
ment. In regard to the best treatment to be accorded 
to the questions which came up under the new order, 
the provinces were at first not agreed among themselves. 
In Utrecht the Provisional Eepresentatives appointed a 
committee to devise a plan, of equality for all the de- 
nominations in that province. The committee reported 
on June 23, 1796. The measure was resisted by dele- 
gates from several Classes of the Eeformed Church, who 
sought to maintain its rights and endeavored to point 
out the injustice of its being put on the same footing 
with other denominations. In Holland the Eepresenta- 
tives of the people required of all teachers of religion, 
a solemn declaration that they would submit to the form 
of government which, based upon the sovereignty of the 
people, then existed, or might thereafter exist, and that 
they would by no means aid in the restoration of the 
aristocratic government of the Stadtholder which had 
been set aside. This requisition was made on June 29, 
1796. Obedience was not rendered in general. Many 
protested. Fifteen ministers of Amsterdam boldly re- 
fused to conform. They were punished by being sus- 
pended from the ministry. 

Two months afterward the abolition of the former 
privileges of the Eeformed Church was proclaimed. It 



280 EEFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHEELANDS. 

was resolved, first, that the annihilation of the old sys- 
tem of a reigning and a privileged Church necessarily 
springs from the recognition of the man and the citizen, 
and is a consequence of the adoption of the fundamental 
principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity; second, 
that there shall be no more a ruling or privileged Church, 
and that all decrees or resolutions which originated in 
the old union between the Church and the State were 
made null and void. 

As a natural result of this an interdict was placed 
upon the wearing of a distinctive ministerial dress, the 
holding of religious services outside of the buildings set 
apart for the purpose, the tolling of bells, or anything 
whatsoever which, practiced by one religious association 
to the exclusion of another, was in conflict with the 
boasted equality. It was certainly out of the question 
also, to make a show of this equality by requiring all to 
practice these things. The contribution of money in 
behalf of ministers, professors, and other officials of the 
formerly recognized Church, was no more demanded. 
The edicts once issued in regard to the Sabbath were no 
longer operative. The expenses of the Eeformed Church 
were no longer paid from the general treasury. All gov- 
ernmental supervision over the calling of ministers and 
Synodical proceedings ceased. 

In April 1797, some of the ministers of the Eeformed 
Church in the several provinces, met in committee to 
devise means to counteract any statutes, injurious to the 
interests of the Church, that might be framed by the 
Assembly. They prepared a petition, asking for the sup- 
port of the Assembly in behalf of the first day of the week, 
that it might be retained as a day of public worship; 
also, for such a disposal of the church buildings, that 
the Reformed might nowhere be placed in distress; 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



281 



and for the continued payment of the salaries of min- 
isters, emeriti, and the widows of deceased pastors. 

Thus the union between the Church and the State 
which, as some members -of the National Assembly said, 
had cost a million lives, was effected. The Eeformed 
Church was now thrown upon her own resources. Pro- 
testantism was once more face to face with Roman Ca- 
tholicism. The latter was at the time by no means a 
feeble power in the land. In 1701 already, there were 
320,000 members with 460 priests. 

And what was the state of religion while these events 
of such momentous interest, politically and ecclesiasti- 
cally, were in progress? On Dec. 31, 1800, the preacher 
of the day, in the Cathedral of Utrecht, exclaimed: "A 
Satanic, loose, and wanton spirit, a spirit of all that is 
horrible, has broken out in the Netherlands. It has spread 
everywhere and polluted all ranks and conditions of men. 
In its path are the country, the pure worship of the divine 
Jesus, our beautiful doctrines of faith and morals, and 
our Church. The number of sincere professors of re- 
ligion is decreasing. Many young people- — alas! have 
they not an example in those who are of mature age? — 
regard themselves as persons of genius, and count it an 
honor to ridicule the Bible and to mock at religion. 
Everything that is holy and worthy of respect they 
trample under foot. They treat ministers as outcasts 
and as the pests of society, simply because they are min- 
isters. They say that the name Christian may be given 
to stupid people, but that it is a term of reproach to 
those who are enlightened. It is hardly necessary to ob- 
serve that the conduct of those who exhibit this spirit is 
extremely immoral." 

Still, for all that this corruption was so general, there 
were men of position and culture who endeavored to 
stem the tide of evil and to uphold the cause of unde- 
filed religion. 



282 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VI. 

THE CHUKCH DURING ITS INDEPENDENCE. 

The twenty years that followed the revolution, were 
years of disaster for the Netherlands. The adoption of 
the French ideas was far from bringing them the pros- 
perity which they had anticipated. They were torn 
asunder by discord. The scourge of war came upon 
them. Their ships were swept from the ocean. Some 
of their colonial possessions were wrested from them. 
Even their nationality for a time became merged in 
that of the rapacious conquerer. 

The religious aspect of the country was most discour- 
aging. All forms of doctrine were discarded. The 
Church was regarded as a mere human association. A 
universal Christendom was aimed at. Distinctive dog- 
mas were avoided in the schools. If these must be 
taught, it was said, let them be set forth by each denom- 
ination only within its own churches. The writings 
of Paine and Priestley, which had been translated into 
Dutch, were greedily read by the people. 

As a result of all this the standard of morality in the 
community was not high. A writer in a Sunday paper of 
the period, said that the morals of the people were more 
corrupt than ever, and that the national character had be 
come depraved. He pointed at the luxury and the laxity 
that affected all classes of society. He bewailed the dis- 
regard \)f_covenant faith, the increasing violation of the 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



283 



laws of modesty, and the painful desire for the new and 
the strange that seemed to possess every mind. 

In the face of this general corruption the Eeformed 
Church was wholly impotent. She lost her power for 
good, not because she had become separated from the 
State, but because she was falling away from the pure 
faith. The ministers were lukewarm. The fundamental 
doctrines of the Grospel were ignored. Peace reigned, 
but it was the immobility, the inertia, that portends 
death. 

The experience of the Church during the time of its 
independence from the State, was evolved in four distinct 
political eras: the first, while the National Assembly 
constituted the government ; the second, while a pen- 
sionary of French appointment was at the head of 
affairs ; the third, while Louis Napoleon was on the 
throne; and the fourth, while the incorporation of the 
Netherlands with the French empire lasted. 

The second National Convention met on Sept. 1, 
1797. One half of its members had been the members 
of the first Convention. It framed a number of regula- 
tions which were submitted to the people and received 
their approval. They were the following: 

1. Each citizen has the liberty to worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of his conscience. 

2. No civil benefit or advantage attaches to the pro- 
fession of any particular form of religion. 

3. Every religious association must care for its own 
ordinances, ministers, and benevolent institutions. 

4. Each religious association shall hold its services in 
its own edifices, open to the public. 

5. No one is permitted to appear in public with the 
badges upon his person of the religious association with 
which he is connected. 



284 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

6. The ministers of the Reformed Church shall con- 
tinue to enjoy their salaries for three years, in the course 
of which the congregations shall arrange for their sup- 
port. 

7. All the properties and funds from which the sala- 
ries were formerly paid, belong to the nation. The 
three years' salaries shall be paid out of them. After 
this, such funds shall constitute a great national trea- 
sure, which is to be applied to a system of national edu- 
cation. 

8. All other ecclesiastical property shall remain the 
lawful possession of those who hold it, except those 
church buildings and parsonages which have not been 
erected by the congregations using them. These latter 
shall be bestowed upon that ecclesiastical association in 
the place which has the largest number of members. A 
proper proportion of the assessed value shall be given to 
other local sects. 

From these regulations it appears that it was designed 
to remove all distinction between the Reformed Church 
and other religious societies of whatever creed and polity. 
As a result, not only great inconvenience, but even suf- 
fering, was brought upon its ministers. The three years 
passed by, and no arrangement whatever had been made 
for their support. In Utrecht alone, a convention had 
been called for the consideration of this difficult 
matter. 

In 1801 a constitution was framed by which the gen- 
eral government was charged with the establishment of a 
fund from which ministers' salaries were to be paid. 
The law was to determine how much each church-mem- 
ber should contribute towards this fund. The Reformed 
then indulged the hope that the old arrangement would 
be resumed. They attempted to show that the Church 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 285 

was possessed of an inherent right in the property which 
it occupied. 

The effort to bring the Reformed Church back to a 
position of dependence upon the State for its pecuniary 
support, in the end proved successful. On Feb. 22, 
1802, the government resolved to resume the payment 
of the salaries of the ministers and the emeriti of the 
Reformed Church, from the common treasury. Thus, 
after seven years of revolutionary radicalism, all that re- 
mained of the regulations affecting the Reformed Church, 
was that every religious association had equal rights and 
privileges. 

There were indications, also, of a return to a better 
way of thinking. In April, 1803, the deputies of the 
Synod of Utrecht forwarded to the government a com- 
plaint respecting the desecration of the Sabbath, the in- 
crease of profanity, and other evils. This resulted in 
an emphatic injunction that the Sabbath should be 
properly observed. At the same time the approval or 
the disapproval of calls was once more submitted to the 
government. State-commissioners again appeared at 
Synodical meetings, and the expenses of these Synods 
were defrayed from the general treasury. The ringing 
of the bells was again permitted, and the interdict that 
had been laid upon a particular ministerial dress was re- 
moved. The National Assembly appeared as desirous 
as the States-General had been, to meddle with purely 
ecclesiastical affairs. In August of that year, the gov- 
ernment of the Batavian Republic declared that the in- 
fluence of religion for the preservation of the State was 
of the greatest importance, and that, for the sake of the 
State itself, religious matters should receive its super- 
vision. 

In the mean time Napoleon was conquering Europe, 



286 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



and, after dividing up its territory to suit himself, 
placed whom he would upon the thrones which he erect- 
ed. On April 29, 1805, he appointed Schimmelpenninck 
pensionary of the Netherlands. That species of gov- 
ernment, however, lasted only a little more than a year. 
During that time the management of Church affairs 
was entrusted to a Secretary of the Interior. Henry 
Van Stralen, who held that office, did much in behalf of 
the Eeformed Church, and gave special attention to the 
prompt payment of ministers' salaries. 

During the following year Napoleon formed the Neth- 
erlands into a kingdom. His brother, Louis Napoleon, 
was made its puppet-king. On June* 18 he entered the 
Hague. By the new constitution then adopted, the 
name of the new kingdom was declared to be Holland. 
In the course of the same year an attempt was made to 
reduce the expenditure incurred in the support of the 
Church, by extinguishing some parishes, and by combin- 
ing two or three small parishes adjacent to each other 
into one. Churches were directed to inform the Minis- 
ter of the Interior whenever a vacancy should occur, and 
were told that, except an order to the contrary reached 
them within two weeks, they should proceed to supply 
them. It was also ordered that churches, having from 
200 to 2000 members, should have one minister each ; 
from 2000 to 4000, two; from 4000 to 6000, three; from 
6000 to 8000, four; from 8000 to 10,000, five; from 
10,000 to 13,000, six; from 13,000 to 16,000, seven; 
from 16,000 to 20,000, eight; above that number, nine. 
This plan of extinguishing some congregations, and com- 
bining others, did not work well in Friesland and Gro- 
ningen. However, a saving was effected to the treasury 
of 40,000 francs annually. 

Louis Napoleon having been removed by his imperial 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



287 



brother, the kingdom Holland was incorporated with 
the empire and became French territory by a decree 
passed July 9, 1810. By this act the dream of liberty, 
fraternity, and equality was still more clearly proyen to 
be only a vision. So far as the Church, under this new 
political arrangement, is concerned, Napoleon desired to 
conform its affairs, relating to ministerial support, to 
the plan existing in France. The salaries of French 
Protestant ministers were small. The pastors of churches 
containing 30,000 members had only 2000 francs annu- 
ally; less than that number, down to 5000 members, 
1500 francs; and less than 5000 members, only 1000 
francs. The ministers of the Netherlands dreaded the 
reduction. They proposed to send an address to the 
emperor, but the idea was abandoned as improper. A 
committee, however, was sent to Paris, with a memorial, 
commending the interests of the Eeformed Church to 
the French government. The memorial was left at Paris, 
but nothing came of it. Provision was made for the 
support of ministers of the Eeformed Church as 
a substitute for the mode which had come to an end 
with the removal of Louis Napoleon. The emperor di- 
rected that one fifteenth of the revenues of every com- 
munity should be devoted to the support of the Church. 
This arrangement also ceased after a short time, and the 
families of pastors were reduced to terrible want, and 
even to starvation. 

The awful failure of the expedition to Moscow and 
the decisive defeat at Waterloo were at hand. The 
French yoke was soon to be broken. Holland was about 
to have a king of its own. With this change in the po- 
litical situation came a change in the aspect of the affairs 
of the Church. 



288 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VII. 

THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM. 

After an absence of a few months less than nineteen 
years, the Prince of Orange returned to the Nether- 
ands on Nov. 13, 1813. He was warmly welcomed 
back to the Capital. Enthusiastic crowds filled the 
streets. Smiles illumined every countenance. The 
people thronged around the Prince to catch a glimpse of 
his beloved face. All parties became united under 
him as the Sovereign Prince. Peace and prosperity 
were restored. The press was freed from bondage. 
Decided efforts were made to provide for the pressing 
wants of the ministers of the Eeformed Church. A 
day of thanksgiving was appointed for Jan. 13 of the 
following year, and another, after the treaty of Paris, 
for July 20. 

It is not necessary to trace the political events which 
followed closely upon the downfall of Napoleon, and the 
dismemberment of the colossal empire which he had 
erected. Suffice it to state that they resulted for the 
Netherlands, including the present kingdoms of Hol- 
land and Belgium, in their recognition as an indepen- 
dent kingdom by the courts of London and Vienna. 
On March 16, 1815, the Sovereign Prince William 
Frederic was proclaimed Jnng at the Hague, with the 
title of William I. 

The king imagined that he must direct the Ee- 
formed Church in a manner which he considered the 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



289 



best calculated to subserve its interests. The constitu- 
tion which at his accession he had sworn to observe, did 
not give him the right to meddle with its affairs. All 
the interference it allowed the State in Church matters, 
was that the State should guarantee to ministers the 
payment of their salaries, and that it was made incum- 
bent upon the king to protect every person in the right 
to exercise the form of religion to which his conscience 
inclined him. The articles of the fundamental law 
bearing upon the subject of religion, were the following: 

1. Complete liberty of religious opinion for every one. 

2. Equal protection for all religions within the king- 
dom. 

3. No distinction, on the ground of religious opinion, 
in respect to civil privileges, or political dignities or 
offices. 

4. No hindrance in the public exercise of any religion, 
except upon the ground of its interfering with the 
public peace. 

5 Salaries, pensions, and other incomes enjoyed by the 
several religious associations, to be assured to them. 
The ministers who had not yet a salary from the general 
treasury, could obtain it, and they who had only a 
small salary, could have it increased. 

6. The king must have a care that moneys avowedly 
disbursed for religious purposes, are not applied to any 
other object. 

7. Also, that there be no interference with the prac- 
tice of religion allowed by the law, and that the mem- 
bers of existing denominations render due obedience to 
the civil authority. 

The course pursued by the king exceeded the limits 
prescribed in these articles. He appointed a committee 
to frame an ordinance by which the relation of the 
25 



290 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



State to the Church should be defined. On Jan. 7, 
1816, a royal decree was issued, based upon the plan 
projected by the committee. It contained these restric- 
tions upon the freedom of the Eeformed Church: 

1. No ecclesiastical assembly shall correspond with 
foreign churches without the consent of the king. 

2. The members of the next Synod shall receive their 
appointment from the king. 

3. The king shall appoint the permanent Synodical 
Clerk and the President of each Synod. 

4. The Synod shall not convene on any day other 
than that stated in the rules, without the consent of the 
king, nor shall it be permitted to promulge any of its 
resolutions except such as he approves. 

5. Every meeting of the Synod must be attended by 
the Minister of Public Worship, or by one or more 
political commissaries. 

These restrictions caused much dissatisfaction. In 
some instances the mob, impelled by an extravagant zeal 
for liberty and equality, and angered by the submission 
of the Church, rushed into the sacred edifices, broke 
down the pulpits, desecrated the tombs, and even in 
some instances disturbed the remains of the dead. But 
the submission on the part of the Church was not unani- 
mous. The Classis of Amsterdam, three months after 
the date of the decree, sent to the king a committee with 
an address. It protested upon the ground that these regu- 
lations originated, not with the Synod, but with the 
king; also, that the unlimited power, placed in the 
Ministerial Department, might result in serious injury 
to the cause of liberty in religion and the purity of the 
Church. This Ministerial Department had been ap- 
pointed as a branch of the political administration " for 
the worship of the Reformed and others, the Roman 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



291 



Catholics excepted." In connection with this Depart- 
ment was a committee of the Civil Council, whose duty 
it was to inform the king of all matters relating to 
religious worship. At the head of the Ministerial De- 
partment was a commissary-general, afterwards the 
Minister of State, who was charged with the direction of 
the affairs of the Eeformed Church. Associated with 
him was an Advisory Secretary. 

When the protest from the Classis of Amsterdam was 
received, this last-mentioned officer replied that " the 
ministers of the Reformed Church, who are under a 
permanent obligation to our beloved king, cannot but 
rejoice that they have fresh evidence of His Majesty's 
intention, on the one hand, to maintain the rights 
which belong to him as sovereign; and, on the other, 
strictly to respect liberty of religion, the prerogatives of 
conscience, and the independence of the faith. He will 
in this manner refrain from influencing that which per- 
tains exclusively, not to the domain of the king but 
to that of Grod." According to the interpretation put by 
the King upon the relation between the State and the 
Church, the authority of the former was not in the 
Church {jus in sacra), but concerning the Church {jus 
circa sacra). He admitted that the legislative power in 
the Church is in the Synod, but that it is to be exer- 
cised under the sanction of the king. The ordinances 
of the Church must have the seal of the royal approval 
before they became legally operative. In matters of 
discipline the Church is wholly independent, but she 
cannot go beyond withholding ecclesiastical privileges 
and declaring a person unworthy to hold an ecclesiasti- 
cal office. 

Under this new organization many improvements were 
made by the Synods of 1816 and of the years imme- 



292 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

diately following, in respect to existing customs and 
usages. Some new practices were also introduced. 
Notices of sales and other secular matters were banished 
from the pulpits. Services were directed to be held on 
Good Friday, New- Year-Eve and New- Year-Day. Min- 
isters were recommended to pronounce a benediction at 
wedding-ceremonies. Impressive services were arranged 
for each anniversary of the victory at Waterloo. Private 
baptism was forbidden. Public baptisms were to be 
administered on Sundays only. A memorial service, 
in honor of the Eeformation, was appointed to be held 
annually on Oct. 31. It was decided in regard to the 
Lord's Supper, that at every preparatory service the 
pastor shall observe the following form. 

"The members of the Christian Church, who expect 
to celebrate the Lord's Supper, are requested to rise, 
and, in the presence of God, the Searcher of hearts, to 
answer with me to these questions, 

" First, I ask you whether you believe in your hearts 
that the true and complete doctrine, which has been 
revealed to us by God, is contained in the books of the 
Old and the New Testaments? ' 

"Let them who believe this say with, me, Yes. 

" Secondly, I ask you whether you believe in your 
hearts that through sin you are corrupt, and, before 
God, are worthy of punishment; and, that in consequence 
thereof, you abhor yourselves in humility and repen- 
tance? 

" Let them who believe this, and are thus disposed, 
say with me, Yes. 

" Thirdly, I ask you whether you believe in your 
hearts that God, through grace alone, has given unto 
us his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our only 
complete Saviour, whose body was broken for us, and 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



293 



whose blood was shed for us unto the forgiveness of sin; 
and whether, with a believing heart, you receive him 
unto wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemp- 
tion? 

" Let them who believe this, and are thus disposed, 
say with me, Yes. 

" Fourthly, I ask whether you sincerely purpose, ac- 
cording to the obligation which by your baptism has 
been laid upon you, to continue in this confession by the 
power of the Holy Ghost, to strengthen your faith, to 
improve your life, and to live with your neighbor in 
true love and concord, thus showing to God true thank- 
fulness for his mercy? 

" Let them who are thus disposed say with me, Yes." 

These questions had been in use for some time in the 
churches of Groningen and Eriesland, but by the Synod 
of 1817 they were enjoined upon the Eeformed Church 
throughout the land. 

Under the new order the regular preaching from the 
Catechism was also required. The Classes were directed 
to give strict attention to the examination of candidates, 
The appointment of the professors of the theological 
schools was retained by the State. The professors were 
ordered to attend the sessions of Synods as advisory 
members, and the Synods were directed to consult the 
theological faculties about any matters in debate in 
which it might be desirable to have an expression of 
their views. 



294 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



VIII. 

THE CONTEOVERSY QUIA— QITATENUS. 

Von the Latin words in the above heading, the Eng- 
lish words because — in so far as might just as well be 
substituted, were it not that history retains them for the 
reason that, having been used at the time to which that 
history refers, they will always designate just exactly the 
kind of division of opinion by which the Church then 
was distracted. Around the ideas which are expressed 
by these Eoman terms more concisely than by the cor 
responding phrases in any other language, the discus- 
sions clustered which found utterance in sermons and 
orations, and were set forth in pamphlets and Sy nodical 
proceedings. 

The first Synod (1816) which met under the new or- 
ganization described in the last chapter, prepared a form 
to which candidates for licensure were required to affix 
their names. It was designed to supersede that which 
had been drawn up by the great Synod of Dort in 1619. 
It received the approval of King William. According 
to its contents the candidate declared by his signature, 
that he heartily believed and would diligently teach and 
maintain, the doctrines which, conformably to the Word 
of God, are contained in the accepted Forms of Concord 
of the Eeformed Church in the Netherlands. The 
meaning of this does not seem to be obscure. Still, the 
question arose about the signification of the phrase, 
" conformably to the Word of God." What did the can- 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



295 



didate promise when he subscribed the sentence contain- 
ing that expression? Did he acknowledge that he re- 
garded the Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and 
the Dordracene Canons, as harmonizing with the teach- 
ings of the Bible? Did he avow that he received them 
in good faith in so far as they were in harmony there- 
with? "Which of these two was the true position? Sides 
were taken. 

Prominent among those who held to the former view, 
was Heringa, a professor in the University of Utrecht. 
They who were attached to him said that the adoption, 
or the rejection, of that opinion was the mark of the 
standing or the falling of the Eeformed Church. They 
received the standards of the Eeformed Church because 
they agreed with the Word of Cod. They declared that 
with even the mental reservation, in so far as, the new 
form might be signed by the members of every possible 
sect, even by Jews and Romanists. 

The leader of those who held the opposite view was 
Herman Donker Curtius. He was born on the first day 
of the year 1779. The days of his youth, therefore, were 
spent during the stormy times preceding the revolution. 
His studies were pursued at the University of Utrecht, 
where he was a pupil of Heringa. His literary achieve- 
ments at his graduation won him considerable fame. 
After short pastorates at Laren and Blarcum, and next 
at Muiderberg, he accepted a call to Arnhem, the capital 
of the Province Gelderland. The office of Superinten- 
dent of the schools added to his duties. He appears to 
have been a man of considerable ability. In theology he 
manifested a tendency towards rationalism. He stood 
very high in the favor of King William I. When His 
Majesty appointed a committee to draw up the plan of 
ecclesiastical organization of 1815, he made Curtius one 



296 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

of its members. "Whenever he was one of the Synodical 
delegates from the Province of Gelderland, the king ap- 
pointed him President of that Synod. His death oc- 
curred in 1837. 

Forty years before the opening of this controversy, 
Bonnet had written, "With reason we are reminded that 
the formulas of the faith, composed by men, are no tests 
of truth or error in matters of religion. It is a pity that 
they are sometimes regarded as such, as though the 
teachers . of the Church placed such compositions on the 
same level with the Word of God. „ Good theologians do 
not attribute any value to such compositions, except in 
so far as they harmonize with the Word of God." It 
can easily be perceived that both the opposing camps 
might claim as their supporter the man whose oracular 
utterance appears, according to the standpoint from 
which his statements are approached, to sustain each in 
its view of the question at issue. 

The peace-loving Heringa could not bear this condi- 
tion of things in the Church. Moreover, he plainly saw 
that the triumph of the dissenting party would be the 
opening of the way for the assumption of great liberty 
with the Standards of the Church. Every man would be 
placed in the position of constituting himself an interpre- 
ter of the extent to which the Symbols reflect the Word 
of God. Some might be disposed to reduce the harmony 
between them to a minimum. Heringa therefore at- 
tempted a union of the two parties upon a middle ground. 
He clung to the quia view still. But, said he, let the 
accepted interpretation of the phrase, " conformably to 
the Word of God/' in the connection in which it occurs 
in the Form to be signed by proposed licentiates, be this, 
that the Forms of Concord of the Reformed Church are 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



297 



received as in harmony with the Word of Cod in respect 
to the principal matters contained in them. 

Memorials were sent to the Synod of 1834, requesting 
that, for the removal of all uncertainty, it would furnish 
an explanation of the meaning of the phrase in debate, 
and that it would insist upon the binding authority of 
the Forms, whether in their entirety, or as to their most 
distinctive doctrinal teachings. The Synod of the next 
year took these requests into consideration, and listened 
to the advice of the aged Heringa. Curtins presided. 
On July 13 a vote was taken. By a large majority the 
Synod refused to comply. Heringa and those whom he 
represented were much distressed. The grief of many 
of these was not of a mere passive kind. The refusal of 
the Synod to return a favorable response, had much to 
do with the formation of the separatist congregations 
who once more loved to call themselves by the time-hon- 
ored name of "the Churches under the Cross." 



298 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



IX. 

THE CHUECHES TODEE THE CEOSS. 

Dueii^g the second quarter of the nineteenth century 
a reactionary movement took place within the Eeformed 
Church. The rationalism by which the Church was 
undermined, and the formalism that reduced its cultus 
to a lifeless ceremonial, evoked a decided protest from 
such men as the poet Bilderdyk, the jurist and theo- 
logian Isaac Da Costa, and the historian Van Prinsterer. 
It was with no uncertain sound that these master-minds 
among the laity inveighed against the spirit of the age. 
But this same condemnation showed itself also in a 
manner which these men could not approve. There 
were many who did not hesitate to sever their connection 
with the Church whose degeneracy they deplored, and 
to form independent congregations. As this could not 
be done, under the existing condition of things, without 
much trouble, since the State had once more acquired a 
considerable degree of supervision over the Church, they 
who thus drew upon themselves suffering for conscience' 
sake, thought they were justified in assuming the title at 
the head of this chapter. 

There is no doubt that they who resorted to the schism 
were impelled by a variety of grievances. Not that all 
these pressed upon the whole body of the seceders, but 
that each person alleged one or more, though indifferent 
to the others, and thus made common cause with those 
who were dissatisfied, as well as himself, with that for 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



299 



which there seemed to be no remedy. The tendency of 
the times to obliterate all distinctions between Protes- 
tants; the prevailing indifference to the practice of a 
deep-toned piety; the new organization of the Church 
under the sanction of royal authority; dissatisfaction 
with the hymns which the Synod of 1807 had directed 
to be used at public worship, together with the Psalms ; 
the alleged remissness of the Synod in not combating, 
with the necessary vigor, the publications of the day 
which were tainted with heterodoxy; opposition to the 
resolution of the Synod of 1817 which had enjoined the 
use of the four questions at preparatory services, on the 
ground that they tended to offend God's people; these 
were some of the causes that led to the formation in the 
Netherlands of a separate religious association which, in 
1855, had 293 congregations with 100,000 members, 200 
ministers, and a theological seminary; and in the estab- 
lishment in the American Union of important settle- 
ments. 

The leaders in the secession were Hendrik de Cock 
and H. P. Scholte. They were remarkable men, espe- 
cially the latter; of fervent piety, of intense conviction 
and of an unyielding determination. 

De Cock began his work in the ministry at Eppen- 
huisen and Noordlaren in 1824. After five years he 
accepted a call to Ulrum. In the latter place he 
preached his strong Oalvinistic discourses to large con- 
gregations. He soon came in conflict with the ecclesias- 
tical authorities. He was charged with baptizing the 
children belonging to other congregations, and with in- 
stilling into their minds the peculiar views of the Bilder- 
dyk school. The Classis of Middelstrum denounced this 
practice. Two ministers, named Brower and Redding, 
assailed him in their publications, and were sharply 



300 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

answered by him in a counter-pamphlet. The Olassis 
then suspended him provisionally until he should repent 
of these two offenses. An appeal to the Provincial 
Synod of Groningen only resulted in the additional 
sentence that he should be deprived of his salary for 
two years. In case, however, that he repented, he was 
to be fully restored and all penalties remitted. 

The trouble was aggravated when De Cock furnished 
a preface to a volume issued by J. Klok, in 1834, 
entitled "The Evangelical Hymns tested, weighed and 
found wanting." The Provincial Synod deposed the 
author of the preface from the ministry. An appeal to 
the General Synod resulted in the sustentation of the 
lower body, with this modification, however, that the 
sentence would not be enforced in case De Cock retracted 
within six months. Instead of humbling himself before 
the Particular Synod, De Cock, joined by the greater 
part of his congregation at Ulrum, seceded from the 
Keformed Church, and gave notice of this to the 
highest courts of the ecclesiastical and the civil govern- 
ments. His deposition by the Synod occurred the next 
year. 

De Cock publicly announced the act of separation on 
October 13, 1834. The preceding day was a Sabbath. 
An unusual scene might have been witnessed at Ulrum, 
in the vicinity of the church of the deposed pastor. 
Standing in a wagon between De Cock and his wife was 
a preacher in the vigor of manhood. He conducted the 
customary services of the Keformed Church, omitting 
the singing of the Evangelical Hymns. The minister 
was H. P. Scholte. He was deeply in sympathy with 
De Cock in the spiritual reactionary movement which 
he represented. He was a disciple of Chevallier, the 
friend and spiritual adviser of Da Costa. Bilderdyk; 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



301 



gave his support to young Scholte. The antipathy of 
the latter to Van der Palm, "the Dutch Cicero/' as he 
has been called, whose learning and pulpit eloquence 
drew around him a host of admirers, caused him the 
loss of the countenance of many who held a prominent 
position in the community. In politics a staunch ad- 
herent to the house of Orange, Scholte instantly aban- 
doned his studies to take an active part in the war 
which resulted in the recognition of Belgium as an 
independent kingdom. After the close of the war, in 
1830, he became pastor of the church at G-enderen 
in Heusden. 

Within three weeks after De Cock's secession, Scholte 
followed his example. He was joined in this step by 
four other pastors, named Brummelkamp, Van Khee, 
Meerburg, and Van Velzen. All these were deposed 
from the ministry. 

Scholte sent the act of secession to the king, accom- 
panied by a letter in which he expressed himself in a 
spirit of Christian independence, without losing sight of 
the deference that is due to the powers ordained of 
God. "We desire," he wrote, "liberty in religion for 
every one. This same liberty we, who are the faithful 
subjects of Your Majesty, and obedient in everything 
connected with our civil relations, desire for ourselves. 
According to the constitution all religions have an equal 
freedom unto the public exercise of their worship. We 
cannot doubt but that the same freedom and protection 
shall be extended to our Church, since we desire nothing 
new. We only wish to worship Cod upon the same 
basis, and according to the same rules, as our forefathers 
who fought against Spanish tyranny and Papal ambition, 
and, under the leadership of Your Illustrious Ancestors, 
freely sacrificed their substance and their lives for the 
26 



302 REFORMED CHURCH IN" THE NETHERLANDS. 

cause of liberty of conscience. s Faithful to the king 
eyen unto beggary/ is and shall remain our watchword. 
The ability thereto, however, lies for us only in the faith 
which made our fathers so courageous and fearless." 

On November 27 the Department of religious wor- 
ship refused to permit the seceders to hold services, on 
the ground that the Constitution guaranteed liberty and 
protection to the religions already existing. More than 
a year afterward, on December 11, 1835, the govern- 
ment declared that it required for examination the 
regulations of the new Society, with a view of ascertain- 
ing that they contained nothing injurious to the State, 
nor to the interests of the Established Church. Scholte 
and his followers refused to furnish any regulations, 
referring the government to the Confession and the 
Heidelberg Catechism as their standards. On July 5th 
of the following year, the king replied to addresses that 
had been forwarded to him. He insisted upon the 
regulations, signed by those who wished to form a 
church of the new order in any place, and countersigned 
by the local burgomaster. It was declared that the new 
Society was to provide for its own expenditures, and to 
care for its own poor. In every case that persons to a 
greater number than twenty wished to hold religious 
services in a private house, they must previously secure 
the consent of a local magistrate. 

In the mean time Scholte traveled through the land 
and preached where he could obtain a hearing. He 
baptized the children and ordained Elders and Deacons 
over the churches which were formed. The govern- 
ment then resorted to severe measures. The military 
were quartered in the places where the secession showed 
itself, though the burden was not imposed upon the 
separatists exclusively. The soldiers were sometimes 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



303 



guilty of excesses. Men were reminded of the dragonades 
of Louis XIV. Fines were imposed. Imprisonment 
fell to the lot of some. Coercion in matters of religion 
gives the prestige of martyrdom and sows the seed of an 
abundant harvest in favor of the oppressed. Once more 
" the Church under the Cross" had a place in history. 

In 1838 Scholte yielded to the demands of the govern- 
ment. He had gathered a church in Utrecht. He sent 
in a code of statutes. They were examined and ap- 
proved, and on February 14, 1839, the "Christian 
Seceded Church" in Utrecht was recognized and per- 
mitted to hold religious worship in the building Soli 
Deo Gloria. This action of the government was de- 
nounced by many who were not willing that the seces- 
sion should have been countenanced in any way. 

King William I. abdicated the throne in favor of his 
son in 1840. William II. was disposed to deal leniently 
with the churches of the separation. Already numeri- 
cally, though not so much on the ground of culture and 
wealth, they could claim respect. Coercion ceased. All 
that was now required unto the recognition of every 
Church was, that it should be regularly organized, and 
that it should furnish a certificate from the local govern- 
ment testifying to the appropriateness of the building in 
which it was intended to hold the services. Each Church 
was to provide for its own necessities, and was forbidden 
to present any claim upon the property, the revenue, or 
the privileges of the Eeformed Church. 

In the course of the same year De Cock and Scholte 
became estranged from each other. The former brought 
charges of schism and slander against his friend and 
co-laborer, and, in the name of the Lord, declared him 
unworthy of the office of the ministry. These dissen- 
sions may have had their influence in prompting Scholte 



304 REFORMED CHURCH 1 1ST THE NETHERLANDS. 



and a number of his adherents to seek a home in the 
new world. They came to America, and by way of New 
Orleans traveled to Iowa. They located in that State 
and founded a village which they named Pella. Shortly 
afterwards they were followed to the United States by 
A. C. Van Kaalte and his colonists. These landed at 
New York, and in the State of Michigan made homes 
for themselves. Both these men have entered into rest. 
Those who followed their leadership, and their descend- 
ants, are developing the resources of the region where 
they settled, and, by their piety, industry and thrift, are 
from year to year adding wealth and strength to the 
Union in which they sought and found the liberty of 
which they were in search. 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



305 



X. 

CONCLUSION. 

Between 1340, the date of the birth of Gerard Groote, 
the first ante-reformer of the Netherlands, and 1840, 
when King William II., during whose reign the separa- 
tists became a recognized religious body, ascended the 
throne of Holland, were exactly five hundred years. 
The four periods into which the author divided the 
Dutch ecclesiastical history of these five centuries, and 
which he named respectively the Formative Period, the 
Defensive Period, the Period of Danger, and the Transi- 
tional Period, are of very different lengths. The first, 
including the lives and the labors of the men who ex- 
erted a great influence in preparing the Netherlands to 
throw ofi 2 the yoke of Rome, and the consolidation of the 
Reformed into a thoroughly organized Church, is the 
longest, embracing no less than 241 years. The second, 
in which occurred the great Synod of Dordrecht, is the 
shortest, covering only 37 years. The third, ending 
with the death of Roell, lasted 102 years; and the fourth 
was of 120 years' duration. 

If we desired to choose for the heading of each period 
a motto indicating to the reader of its history its sub- 
stance, or at once fixing his mind upon the principal 
lessons taught by it, we should have no difficulty in 
finding that of which we are in search in the volume of 
the Holy Scripture. Nor is this surprising. Writers 
of fiction point out the drift of that part of the narra- 



306 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



tive which presents the words and the acts of the heroes, 
by placing, as a superscription over each chapter, a quo- 
tation from a poet or a philosopher. The principle upon 
which they do this is the identity of human nature 
everywhere and always. " As in water face answereth 
to face, so the heart of man to man." Under certain cir- 
cumstances men, acting out their simple human nature, 
will speak and act nearly alike, and their conduct is 
recognized upon broad grounds as the crystallization of 
their thoughts. Hence we approve, or condemn, a work 
of fiction, as natural, or contrary to nature, as the au- 
thor meets, or does not meet, the general idea of the 
manner in which a real person, actually placed in such 
a scene, would speak and act. 

Now, history, in so far as it is the record of events, 
controlled and directed by the supramundane, personal 
God, is a manifestation of Himself. But the word of 
revelation is this essentially. There must be therefore 
a species of harmony between them. There certainly 
are points of contact between the two records. To say 
the least, they run in parallel lines. But history, secu- 
lar or inspired, to the extent that it narrates the utter- 
ances and the deeds of men, is an exhibition of that 
which is thoroughly human. But the same may be 
said also of the portion of the Bible not strictly histori- 
cal nor theological, for the reason that it holds up man 
to himself as he is, the representation being perfect be- 
cause drawn by an infallible Artist. Again, then, how 
otherwise than that between history, and Scripture in 
its multiform utterances, there should be points of 
contact ? Now if all this is true of secular history, 
how much more so of church-history, and eminently 
true of politico-ecclesastical history, such as that of the 
Eeformed Church in the Netherlands, between 1340 
and 1840! 



TEANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



307 



The passage of Scripture which is suggested by a re- 
view of the Formative Period of the Reformed Church, 
is a portion of the glowing description, by the author of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, of the triumphs achieved by 
the worthies, each of whom illustrated the mighty power 
of faith — "who through faith subdued kingdoms." 
The dominion in the heart of the passions and lusts of 
an unrenewed nature; the tyranny which held the con- 
science enthralled by means of chains that were forged 
in the strongholds of Papal superstition and arrogance; 
and the despotism which, lending itself to the execution 
of the behests of the ecclesiastical power, trampled upon 
every heaven-born right of the citizen; were the king- 
doms that were subdued through faith by those who 
sacrificed their goods, shed their blood, and yielded their 
lives for the sake of the truth that the just shall live by 
faith, and for the establishment of a Church which shall 
have this doctrine written over its gates in letters of 
light, so long as it prove not recreant to its origin. 

When this cardinal doctrine which, with its kindred 
truths, had been set forth in the Confession of faith 
which had been composed at home, and in the Cate- 
chism which had been gratefully received from the land 
of Luther, was assailed within the Church itself by the 
followers of those who formerly had marched under the 
banner of Pelagius, its defense was instantly undertaken 
and vigorously maintained. "The form of sound 
words" was regarded as too precious than that an altera- 
tion of it should lightly be allowed, especially, as the 
proposal to revise and amend the Standards of the 
Church had back of it the design to substitute for the 
tenets of the Calvinistic School the views of Arminius. 
The zeal that was manifested in the second Period by 
the protectors of the doctrines which are represented by 



308 EEFOEMED CHUECH IN THE NETHEELANDS. 



the Reformed Church, was that which animated the au- 
thor of the same epistle from which the motto for the 
first Period was taken, when he addressed to his readers 
of all times the exhortation " Let us hold fast our 
profession.-" 

When they who compose the visible Church "will not 
endure sound doctrine" they "turn away their ears from 
the truth unto fables." The Church-militant is prone 
to fall into this evil. A warning symptom is the " itch- 
ing ear." The evidence that the warning was in vain, 
is the " heaping up teachers after one's own lusts." The 
Reformed Church became entangled in this snare during 
the third Period of its history, which may therefore 
properly be termed the Period of Danger. The Scrip- 
ture word which during that period had a special mean- 
ing for those who watched the times, and is profoundly 
significant as long as the Church is yet exposed to a 
similar trial of her faith and steadfastness, is the warn- 
ing of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, " Beware lest 
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, 
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the 
world, and not after Christ." 

The witness to the true progress of our humanity is 
the acquisition of liberty. The correctness of the as- 
sertion, however, depends upon the mode of the acquisi- 
tion of liberty. When liberty is forcibly seized by the 
rejection of all proper authority, it forfeits even the name. 
Lawlessness is not freedom but slavery. When liberty 
is secured as the result of the culture of the mind and 
the heart, but especially of the spiritual faculties, it sub- 
mits to the just restraint which indeed is essentially a 
part of itself. At the same time it is prepared to assert 
the inalienable rights of man, and to battle most vigor- 
ously against all attempts at its restriction. Although 



TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



309 



the French revolution, which preceded that in the 
Netherlands, was a reaction against some of the most 
dreadful abuses from which a nation can suffer, still, 
during that reign of terror, men had a pseudonym on 
their lips, and swore devotion to freedom from any re- 
straint whatsoever. " Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality!" 
was the cry that rang from the Mediterranean Sea to 
the German Ocean, and all government was ignored. 
The Supreme Sovereign himself was dethroned in the 
creeds, and, as far as possible, even in the conscience. 
The liberty which is not the evidence of a genuine pro- 
gress of humanity, but of a deplorable retrogression, 
follows in the train of the god of this world, and is a 
deception and a snare. The freedom which is acquired 
through the penetration of the Spirit of the Gospel into 
the body politic of a nation, is a positive blessing. They 
who enjoy it are under the closest restraint, yet they are 
absolutely free. This is no paradox. They have the 
Spirit of the Son, and, " where the Spirit of the Lord 
is, there is liberty." It is this statement of the Apostle 
Paul, in his letter to the Church at Rome, of which the 
events, that occurred during the transitional Period of 
the Reformed Church in the Netherlands, remind us. 
The very contrast between the false liberty and the true, 
which is set forth in that history, furnishes a striking 
commentary upon this sentence from the pen of the in- 
spired Apostle. 

One of the most beautiful illustrations of the exquisite 
neatness of execution which characterizes all the works 
of the Creator, is furnished by the vegetable kingdom. 
The angles which are made in the leaves of a particular 
tree, by the veins which spread out laterally from that 
which bisects them longitudinally, are similar to those 
made by the limbs which branch out from the trunk. 



310 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

The peculiarities of the greater are reproduced in the 
minor. There are certain lessons which are taught by 
the history of the world, but which are taught also by 
that of an insignificant portion of it. This must be ad- 
mitted by every one who studies history, not upon a 
graduated chronological scale, but, philosophically, upon 
a principle in which the question of duration of time 
does not enter. From the history of the Reformed 
Church in the Netherlands we gather instruction con- 
cerning the Divine Character, the nature of man, the 
Providence of God, his faithfulness to his people, the 
evil of forsaking him, the wisdom of union and the dis- 
aster of strife, and kindred topics, just as clearly as 
from that of the Church universal. Yes, we hesitate 
not to avow the opinion that the shortest period of the 
history of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands — 
that when the great triumph of Calvinism over Remon- 
strantism was achieved — teaches these things as distinct- 
ly as the longest. What any striking history holds up to 
the view of the reflecting, is known to those to whom it 
is more than " a tale that is told." 

The seventeenth century had not been completed, be- 
fore the Reformed Church became established in Ameri- 
ca. The daughter in the New World is already nearly 
two hundred years old. Let the child learn wisdom by 
the experience of the parent. In that the Lord has 
given a name and a place in the wonderful continent 
whither the nations flock, as the birds of heaven in the 
vision, to the tree that symbolized the now effete As- 
syrian monarchy, He intimates that the Reformed Church 
in America has a mission. What is it ? That which 
she has in common with all Evangelical Churches — to 
save the souls of men by leading them to the great 
Mediator, the ever blessed Lord Jesus Christ. But in 



TEAISTSITIOISTAL PEEIOD. 



311 



what manner shall the Keformed Church respond to 
this duty and privilege? By upholding her standards 
of the Calvinistic representation of Bible-truth? By 
faithfulness to her well-ordered polity? By a strict 
regard to her methods of discipline? By a wise use of 
her liturgy? By any one of these, or by all combined? 
By all means let there be unity and concord, throughout 
the entire Church, in respect to those matters which dis- 
tinctively point to her history, her order, her polity, her 
doctrine. Eendragt maakt magt. 

•May the Keformed Church ever prove true to her 
motto — that Church, hallowed by an experience which 
is truly wonderful, replete with lessons of wisdom, hu- 
mility, joy in the Lord and dependence on the Holy 
Spirit! In the years to come, when that part of her his- 
tory which is yet to be made shall be written, may it be 
recorded that in the great army of the Lord of hosts she 
proved herself a division of it, constantly growing in 
numbers, increasing in efficiency, and ever in the fore- 
front of the battle against the enemies of the Lord, and 
achieving great victories for the upbuilding of His king- 
dom and the extension of His glory in the earth! 

NISI DOMIKUS FRUSTKA. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



Absolutism, principle of, 276. 
Accord, Form of, 115. 
Act of Silence, 162, 182. 
Agricola, 29. 

Alasco, John, meets Simons in Friesland, 49; his Confession o 
faith, 58; superintends Church of London, 66; composed a 
liturgy, 71. 

Aldegonde, St. (see Marnix). 

Alexander VI. , Pope, 14. 

Alva, Duke of, deposed priests in Friesland, 36 ; enters Brussels, 

64; recalled, 85. 
America, when discovered, 23. 
Amilianus, his opinion of Descartes, 195. 

Amsterdam, magistrates of, send Arminius to Geneva, 127; Con- 
sistory of, calls him to pastorate, 127; pastors of, agree, 216; 
magistrates of, receive Labadie, 222; ministers of, refuse to 
comply with act of representatives of Holland, 279 ; Classis of, 
addresses King William I., 290. 

Anabaptists, 42; their opinions, 46; Prov. Syn. of Dort on, 90. 

Anjou, Francis, Duke of, called to the Dutch protectorate, 99. 

Antwerp, Synod of, 55 ; image-breaking in, 64. 

Aquinas, Thomas, 204. 

Archives of early Synods, 175. 

Aristotle, 193. 

Arminius, 114; his life, 126 seq. 

Armistice between Spain and the Netherlands, 109 seq. 
Arnoldi objects to Bekker's book on Heid. Catechism, 232 seq. 
Arnoldus takes Coornhert to task, 118. 
Article, the fortieth, of Prov. Syn. of Dort, 88. 
Assembly, 1st National, 278; 2d National, 283. 
27 



314 



INDEX. 



Atonement, Remonstrant view of, 148 seq. ; doctrine of Great 

Synod of Dort on, 168. 
Atrecht, treaty of, 100. 
Auerbach on Spinoza, 228. 
Austria, Don John of, 92. 

" Margaret of, imprisons Pistorius, 32; represents King 

Philip in the Netherlands, 52; receives the Compromise, 57. 

Bahrdt at meeting of infidels, 274 seq. 
Balk, 124. 

Banquet to Great Synod of Dort, 163. 

Baptism, Syn. of Wezel on, 81; Prov. Syn. of Dort on, 89. 

Baptists (see Anabaptists). 

Batavian Republic acknowledged, 278; desires to meddle in 

Church-affairs, 285. 
Batenburg, protest against Cocceians, 217. 
Bayle, Peter, 191. 
Beets, K, 253. 

Bekker, Balthasar, 192; favors Cartesianism, 196 seq.; writes on 
Heid. Catechism, 232 seq.; writes on comets, 234; his '''World 
bewitched," 234; denies influence of spirits, 235; deposed, 236. 

Bekkerism, Classical action on, 236. 

Belgic Confession (see Confession of faith). 

Bellarmine, 127. 

Bergen, scene of Merula's execution, 41. 
Bernhard of Clairvaux, 15. 
Bernsau, his Analogia, 260. 

Bertus, Petrus, his funeral oration on Arminius, 131. 
Beyerus, Hugo, ministers to Oldenbarneveldt, 176. 
Beza, 118, 127, 205. 

Bible, translated into Dutch, 173 seq. ; Spinoza on the, 227. 
Bilderdyk, his opposition to rationalism, 298; supports Scholte, 
300. 

Blom, Cornelius, 265 seq. 

Bogerman, elected President of Great Synod of Dort, 142: 
violently dismisses Remonstrants, 158 seq. ; prepared statement 
of doctrine, 166; thanks magistrates of Dort, 179; replies to 
Yan Holen, 180; reports at the Hague, 180. 

Bonnet on formulas of the faith, 296. 

Bouwens baptizes at Embden, 43. 



INDEX. 



315 



Brake], William, 216; on Labadists, 234; a favorite author, 254; 

wrote against arrogance of magistrates, 265 seq. 
Brand, G., mentions Baptists, 43 seq. ; his account of Remonstrant 

tenets, 147 seq. 
Brederoode, Hendrik, leads nobles into Brussels, 56. 
Bres, Guido de, composed Confession of faith, 58. 
Brethren of Common Life, institution of order of, 20; Groote's 

address to them, 21; places where they were established, 21. 
Briel, its orphan asylum, 35; captured, 85. 
Brouwer assails H. De Cock, 299. 
Brussels, meeting of the nobles in, 56. 
Bulthuis fined for politics in the pulpit, 274. 
Buxtorf praises Arminius, 132. 

Calls, ministerial, Synod of Embden on, 85; submitted to the 

government for approval, 285. 
Calvin, doctrine of Lord's Supper, 53; views of Church-polity, 

54; advice of, concerning new Confession, 58. 
Calvinists, increase of, in the Netherlands, 54. 
Candidates for communion, 95. 
Canons, announced, 160; their substance, 167 seq. 
Careleton, George, 140; on committee on Canons, 167. 
Cartesian philosophy, principle of, 194 seq. ; rejected, 196. 
Casimir, John, 100. 

Catechism of Geneva, 84. (See Heidelberg Catechism.) 

Cats, Jacobus, expresses popular thought, 157 ; presides at assenr 
bly of the States, 189; a favorite author, 254. 

Century, the fifteenth, remarkable events in, 23. 

Charles V., edicts of, against the Reformation, 62; edicts of, 
abolished, 92. 

Charlemagne, schools established by him, 21. 

Chevalier, friend of Da Costa, 300. 

Christian ordinances, contributed to the liturgy, 71. 

Church, the, condition of, in 14th century, 17; effort at reforma- 
tion within it, 36; legislative bodies in, 94; protects her doc- 
trine, 115; is jealous of her rights, 121; formality of, 189; evils 
besetting it, 189 seq. ; how it was regarded at the time of the 
revolution, 254; numerical strength at close of 18th century, 
254; divided into two parties, 270; protests against the king's 
regulations, 290; reasons for schism in, 299, 



316 



INDEX. 



Church and State, friction between, 90, 93; unsettled relations of, 
101 ; mixture between them to be avoided, 101 ; bond between 
them drawn closer, 182; want of harmony between them, 188; 
divorced, 276 seq. ; ordinance defining relation between them, 
289 seq. ; the King's understanding of relation between them, 
288 seq. 

Cities of refuge, 65 seq. 

Classis, of Leeuwarden denounces Blom, 268; of Dokkum attacks 
lemma Orange-Nassau, 273. 

Classes, early, their bounds fixed, 84; formed by Prov. Syn. of 
Dort, 84; their officers, 95; issue a pamphlet on relation 
between Church and State, 124; request a Provincial Synod, 
134; oppose Descartes and Cocceius, 215; maintain rights of 
Reformed Church, 279; must give strict attention to examina- 
tion of candidates, 293. 

Cocceius, 192; his life, 198 seq.; his attractive lectures, 199; his 
views of Bible-interpretation, 200; his view of Christianity, 
200; of pardon of sin under O. T., 201; of the Sabbath, 201; 
on history of Christian Church, 202; his death, 203; his princi- 
ple of interpretation, 214. 

Cocceian, pastors, their ingenuity, 210; their opinion of covenant 
of grace, 214. 

Cocceians, view of Church-polity of, 214; denounce Voetians, 

214; divisions among them, 216; their mode of life, 218. 
Coligni, Louise de, favors politico-ecclesiasticism, 122. 
Comets, 157, 233. 

Committee, Synodical, to draw up Canons, 167. 
Compromise offered by the nobles, 56. 

Confession of faith, history of, 58 seq. ; not subscribed at Wezel, 
77; signed at Synod of Embden, 83; action of Prov. Syn. of 
Dort on, 87; action of 1st ISTat. Synod of Dort on, 96; action 
of Synod of Middelburg on, 102; revised by Great Synod of 
Dort, 177. 

Conservatives in religion, 270. 

Consistories, early, met how often, 83; what was required by 

Prov. Syn. of Dort from, 87; their duties, 95. 
Consolation of sick, Form for, 175. 
Constantinople captured, 23. 
Constitution of the State framed, 284. 
Contra-Remonstrance, articles of, 151. 



INDEX. 



317 



Conventions, classical, 83. 
Conventicles, 207. 

Conversion, Remonstrant view of, 149; Synod of Dort on, 168. 
Coolhaas, Casper, dispute with Peterson, 102; what he repre- 
sents, 114; life of, 123 seq. 
Coornhert, Dirk V., 116 seq. 

Cornelius, Arnoldus, member of com. on translation of the Bible, 
174. 

Cornelisson, Peter, dispute with Coolhaas, 102. 
Council of Blood, 65; banishes Coornhert, 117. 
Council, Civil, duties of, 291. 
Council of Trent, 39. 

Crabeth, the Brothers, their elegant stained-glass windows at 
Gouda, 120. 

Crispyn, John, publishes Confession of Faith at Geneva, 60. 
Cups, beautiful, presented to city of Wezel, 67. 
Curtius, Herman Donker, 295 seq. 

Da Costa, Isaac, reaction against rationalism, 298. 

Damman, Sebastian, scribe of Great Synod of Dort, 142. 

Dathenus, Petrus, 55; volume published by him, 69; presides at 
Synod of Wezel, 76; his versified psalms, 88; opposes treaty of 
religious peace, 97. 

Deacons, two Classes of, and their duties, 80. 

De Bakker, John (see Pistorius). _ . 

Decani Christianitatis, 94. 

De Cock, Hendrik, 299 seq. 

De Cock, Gerardus T., accused of heresy, 262. 

Delegates to church-bodies, 94; number of, probably would attend 
Great Synod of Dort, 139; escorted to Synod's place of meet- 
ing, 141. 

De la Chapelle, opposes Maty, 259. 
Delft-Conference, 135. 

Deodatus, Johannes, remark of, on execution of Oldenbarneveldt, 

165; member of com. on Canons, 167. 
De Pours, Jeremiah, preaches to Great Synod, 141. 
Depravity, Human, Remonstrant view, Synod of Dort on, 149. 
Descartes, Rene, 192; his life, 194 seq.; his philosophy, 195. 
Deurhoff, William, issues books on philosophy, 231. 
Diagram of Great Synod of Dort, 143. 



318 



INDEX. 



Diest-Lorgion quotes Baptist author, 45. 

Dismission, letters of, 95. 

Doctrine, rule for preserving purity of, 89. 

Doddridge, 255. 

Dominacalia, 88. 

Donteclock takes Coornliert to task, 118. 

Dordrecht, Prov. Synod of, 86 seq. ; 1st National Synod of, 92 

seq. (See Great Synod of .) 
Du Jon (see Junius). 

Dwinglo, Bernardus, reads a paper for Remonstrants, 155. 
Edicts against the Reformation, 62. 

Edward VI., King, gives a building to Ref. Church of London, 66 
Egmont, Count, is sent on a mission to Spain, 63. 
Elders, duties of, described by Synod of Wezel, 79. 
Election, Remonstrant view of, 148; Doctrine of Synod of Dort, 
167. 

Elizabeth, Princess of Palatinate, receives Labadists, 222. 

Queen, supports Church of London, 66; favors Anjou, 

100; represented in Netherlands by Leicester, 109. 
Elohim, how translated in Staten-bybel, 174. 
Embden, the Alma Mater of the Ref. Church, 66 ; its hospitality 

awarded, 66. 

Engelhard favors Leibnitz-Wolffian philosophy, 260. 
Ens, Peter, his doctrine of the Trinity, 260. 

Episcopius, ^insulted by a mob, 113; appointed prof, at Ley den, 
133; cited before Synod of Dordrecht, 153; addresses the 
Synod, 154; replies to Bogerman, 159. 

Erasmus, sketch of his life, 25 seq. 

Erastianism, supported by Classis of Leeuwarden, 268. 

Essenius, Professor, replies to Cocceius, 202. 

Excommunication, Form of, 102; of Spinoza, 230. 

Exegesis, two schools of, in 17th century, 208. 

Exhortation addressed to authorities in Netherlands, 60. 

Factions, beginning and number of, 213 seq. 
Faith, Remonstrant view of, 147. 
Fast-day, 140. 

Faukelius, Hermanus, adsessor at Great Synod, 142, 
Feast-days, 89, 96. 



INDEX. 



319 



Field-service, the first, 64. 
Flanders, image-breaking in, 64. 
Fontainebleau, assembly of, 59. 

Foreign Delegates, ceremonies at departure of, 162; thanked, 163 

on Heid. Catechism, 173; on the Confession of faith, 177. 
Form of Accommodation, 136. 
Formulas of Faith, Bonnet on, 296. 

France, not represented at Synod of Dort, 140; war of, with the 
Netherlands, 275; soldiers of, enter Netherlands, 276; Reformed 
Church in, 287. 

Francis II., King, receives Confession of French Churches, 59. 
Franeker, University of, 198, 232, 238. 
Frederic Henry, Prince, died, 188; his luxury, 190. 
Freethinkers abusing hospitality of Netherlands, 274. 
Friesland, return of piety in, 246; meeting of provisional repre- 
sentatives of, 277. 
Fundamental law of Holland, 289. 
Funerals, 97. 

Gabriel, Peter, holds field-service, 64. 
Gansvoort, Wessel, 21. 
Gerardsz, Gerard (see Erasmus). 
Geux, name assumed by the nobles, 57. 
Ghent, Pacification of, 92. 

God, Spinoza on existence of, 229; on liberty of, 230. 

Gomarus, opposes appointment of Arminius, 128; his opinion of 
predestination, 129; has a debate with Arminius, 130; retires to 
Middelburg, 133; receives Synodical delegates, 141. 

Gregorius addresses Synod of Dort, 142. 

Groenewoud distinguishes between believing and faith, 258. 

Groningen, magistrates of, forbid use of liturgical questions, 73; 
University of, 259. 

Groote, Gerard, 18 seq. 

Grotius, Hugo, on Erasmus, 26; on Coornhert, 120; pleads for 
civil authority over the Church, 122; on Arminius, 132. 

Haarlem, cruel siege of, 86. 

Hague, The, scene of execution of Pistorius, 33 ; imprisonment of 
Merula, 39; imprisonment of Coornhert, 117; lecture associa- 



320 



INDEX. 



tion of, 255; natural right of man proclaimed at, 278; William 

proclaimed king, 288. 
Hales, John, King James' commissioner, 174. 
Hand-opening, nature of, 264. 
Heads of Doctrine (see Canons). 
Heenvliet, 36. 

Heidanus, Professor, supports Cocceius, 201; ''moral considera- 
tions" of, 215. 

Heidelberg Catechism, adopted, 60; to be used by Dutch-speaking 
churches, 84; action on, by Prov. Synod of Dort, 88; pamphlet 
of Coornhert against it, 119; examination of it enjoined, 130; 
Great Syn. of Dort on, 172; direction for instruction in it, 173; 
foreign delegates on, 173; Bekker's volume on, 232; preaching 
on, required under new order, 293. 

Helmichius, Warnerus, member of committee on translation of 
the Bible, 174. 

Herder, 207. 

Heringa, adopts quia side of controversy, 295; attempts reconcil- 
iation between quia and quatenus sides, 296. 

Holland, action of provisional representatives of, 279; made a 
kingdom, 288. 

Hollingerus, protest of against expulsion from Synod of Dort, 159. 
Hommius, Festus, on Arminius, 131 ; scribe of Synod of Dort, 

142; revision of liturgy committed to him, 176. 
Hoornbeek, Professor, answers Cocceius, 202. 
Huber opposes Roell, 238. 
Huss, John, 15. 

Iconoclasm, 64. 

Improvement under new organization of Church, 291. 
Independence, movements toward, 252; of the Church in four 

periods, 283. 
Indies, The, churches planted in, 192. 
Infant-baptism, discussion connected with it, 73. 
Infidelity during revolution, 274. 
Influences tending to advance Reformation, 52. 
Infralapsarians, 146. 

Interdict laid upon usages of Reformed Church, 280. 
Interim, The, 38. 

Interpretation, Cocceian method of, 209; specimens of, 210; 
Voetian method of, 211. 



INDEX. 



321 



James, King, on Arminius, 131 ; opposed to Vorstius, 133. 
Jausenists, The, 219. 
Joncourt, 217. 
Julius II., Pope, 14. 

Junius, Franciscus, 56; prays at meeting of nobles, 56; tran- 
scribes Confession, 60; on Coornhert, 120; on predestination, 
127. 

Karelstadians, 53. 
Kempis, Thomas a, 20. 

Klok, J. , his work on the Evangelical Hymns, 300. 
Koelman, 207. 

Koster, Laurens, invents printing, 24. 
Kruningen, Lord, calls Merula, 36. 
Kuypers, his exciting ministry, 262. 

Labadie, Jean de, 192; Voet's sympathy with, 206; Sketch of 
his life, 219 seq. 

Labadists, their doctrinal views, 223; their mysticism, 223; their 

Churches in New York, 225. 
Lecture-courses founded, 255. 

Leeuwarden, strife between magistrates of, and Blom, 268. 
Leibnitz-Wolfflan philosophy, 260. 
Leicester, Earl of, administration of, 109. 
Leo X., Pope, 14. 

Letter of Scholte to King William I., 301. 

" to Philip II. with the Confession of faith, 59. 
Leyden, University of, founded, 133; appoints Vorstius, 133. 
Liberty of conscience allowed by the Keformed, 115; of religion 

called for, 277. 
Liberalism, principle of, 276. 

Liturgy, The, formed, 69 seq. ; necessity for revision of, 72; re- 
vised by Great Synod of Dort, 175; added to by Synod of Dort, 
176; other revisions of, 176; contentions about, 263. 

Lombard, Peter, 204. 

Lombards, 90. 

London, the Church in, 65; order of worship in church of, 103. 
Lord's Supper, Synod of Wezel on, 81; Lutheran doctrine of, 53; 

Calvinistic doctrine of, 53; Zwinglian doctrine of, 53. 
Louis XIV., dragonnades, 303, 



322 



INDEX. 



Louis of Nassau leads nobles into Brussels, 56. 
Louvain, University of (see Pistorius). 

Luther, Martin, date of birth of, 23; date of, 95; theses of, 29; 

view of church-polity, 53. 
Lutherans, doctrine of Lord's Supper, 53. 

Lydius, Balthasar, addresses Great Synod of Dort, 142; preaches 

closing sermon of Synod of Dort, 178. 
Lypsius, Justus, book of, on unity in religion, 120. 

Maclaine, exposition of Bekker's argument, 235. 
Manifesto of provisional representatives, 276. 
Marck, Johannes a, 216. 

Maresius, Professor, combats Cocceian tenets, 202. 

Marloratus, A., annotation of Dutch N. T., 70. 

Marnix, Philip of, 56; publishes the Psalms, 72; present at Synod 
of Wezel, 77; signs pacification of Ghent, 92; on abjuring au- 
thority of Philip II., 105; member of committee on translation 
of Bible, 174. 

Mary, Queen, persecution under, 66. 

Mass-book, change made in it by Merula, 38. 

Matthias, Archduke, invited to the Netherlands, 93; opposes 
Anjou, 99. 

Maty, Paul us, doctrine of, on the Trinity, 259. 

Maurice, Prince, opponent of, 109; sides with the Church against 
the State, 122; resolves to support the Reformed, 137; con 
demns violence of Bogerman, 159; death of, 188. 

Maximilian II., Emperor, receives copy of the Confession, 61. 

Mazarin, 220. 

Medals, given to foreign delegates to Synod of Dort, 163; to home 

delegates, 181; to political delegates, 181; about Bekker, 234. 
Melancthon, 29. 
Melancthonians, 53. 

Merle, William, efforts of, in behalf of Merula, 41. 
Merula, Angelus, 35 seq. 

Middelburg, scene of Labadie's labors, 221. (See Synod of.) 
Middelstrum, Classis of, opposes De Cock, 299. 
Mimonides, 226. 

Ministers, questions proposed to, at installation of, 78; compara- 
tive standing of, among themselves, 85; preaching from O. 
T., 88; petition of, against a vicar, 252; take political sides, 



INDEX. 



323 



274; send petition to National Assembly, 280; salaries of, 
paid by the State, 284; send memorial to Napoleon, 287. 

Ministerial Department, 290; secretary's answer to protest of 
Classis of Amsterdam, 291. 

Modet, Henry, 56; present at Synod of Wezel, 77. 

Mommers reconciles Cocceians and Voetians, 217. 

Morteira, Saul Levi, Rabbi, 226. 

Mosheim on doctrines of Mennonites, 49. 

Naeranus protests against his expulsion from Synod of Dort, 159. 

National Synod must meet how often, 84. 

Napoleon provides for support of Reformed ministers, 287. 

Napoleon, Louis, king of Holland, 286. 
- Netherlands, The, in 14th century, 13; sad condition of before the 
revolution, 275; religious aspect of, after the revolution, 282; 
an independent kingdom, 288. 

New Testament, translated into Dutch by Rhodius, 30; by Uiten- 
hove, 70. 

Newton, Cardiphonia of, 255. 

Nicolas, Henry, disputes with Coornhert, 116. 

Niellius, Carolus, protest of against act of Synod of Dort, 155; pro- 
test of against his expulsion from the Synod, 159. 

Nobles, The, present the Compromise to the regent, 57. 

Notices, secular, in pulpits, 89. 

Oath, The, taken by Synod of Dort, 153. 
Odulphus, 205. 

Oldeklooster, the tragedy of, 47. 

Oldenbarneveldt, 109; urges claims of the State over the Church, 
122; request of, to Prince Maurice, 137; executed, 165; com- 
forted by the liturgy, 176. 

Opponents of the Reformed, gradual course of, 126. 

Orange-men, 272, 274. 

Orange-Nassau, lemma of, 273. 

Ordinance defining relation of Church and State, 289. 
Organs in churches, 89. 

Paris, University of, 36. 
Parma, Prince of, 100. 
Pascal, 77. 



324 



INDEX. 



Patriots, political, 271. 

Paulus, Peter, elected President of National Convention, 278. 

People, The, of the Netherlands, desire reformation in 14th cen- 
tury, 18; their interest in schools of the Brethren, 21; attach- 
ment to Calvinism, 54; their time of trial, 86; interested in 
predestination, 113; long for a Synod, 114; fear comets, 157; 
become more devout, 245; lose confidence in the Church, 252; 
divided into three political parties, 270; representatives of, 
meet, 278; condition of, after the revolution, 282; rejoice over 
return of the Stadtholder, 288. 

Perrot, 127. 

Perseverance of Saints, Remonstrant view of, 150; Synod of Dort 
on, 169. 

Peterson, Peter, dispute with Coolhaas, 102. 

Philip II., King, orders execution of Merula, 41; his mistake, 62; 
his answer to Egmont, 63; his oath, 63; prayed for after hav- 
ing been abjured, 70; appoints Parma regent, 100; his authority 
abjured, 105; date of death of, 109. 

Pistorius, 30 seq. 

Plancius opposes Arminius, 127. 

Polanus, Vallerandus, 71. 

Political delegates oppose Bogerman, 166; their stipend, 181. 

Polyander, appointed professor at Leyden, 133; opposes Episco- 
pius, 154; preaches to Synod of Dort, 157; member of commit- 
tee on Canons, 167; reports at the Hague, 180. 

Post-Acta of Synod of Dort, 171 seq. 

Prayers, evening, 89. 

Predestination, doctrine of, held up to contempt, 112; views of 
Junius on, 127; doctrine of Arminius on, 128. (See Election.) 

Preparatory service, questions to be asked at, 292. 

Printing, art of, when invented, 23; influence of, on manuscripts, 
24; on morals of monks, 25. 

Professors of theology, appointed by the State, 293; present at 
Synods, 293. 

Prophesying, in the Church of London, 79. 

Questions, asked of Classes, 96, 259. 

" in form for infant baptism, forbidden, 73; debates 
on, 263. 

" to be settled at armistice, 110. 



INDEX. 



325 



Questions, asked of catechumens, 214. 
" ' " candidates, 236. 

" "at preparatory service, 292. 

Radewynsz, Florentius, conversation with Groote, 20. 
Rationalism, effects of its application, 253; reaction against, 298. 
Reaal, Laurens Jacobs, sends to Embden for pastors, 66. - 
Redding assails H. De Cock, 299. 
Reformers within the Church, 37. 

Reformed The, condition of, under Alva, 82; cling to predestina- 
tion, 111. 

Reformed Church, the, organized, 76; internal conflicts of, 257; 
former privileges of abolished, 279 ; loss of influence of, after 
revolution, 283; under Louis Napoleon, 286; restrictions upon, 
290. 

Reformed Churches, the, in Germany and Friesland, 83. 

Reformed Religion established in the Netherlands, 105. 

Reformed, teachings of the, concerning comets, 223. 

Regensburg, imperial diet of, 61. 

Regius represents Cartesianism at Utrecht, 197. 

Regulations, adopted by 1st National Assembly, 278; by the 2d 
National Assembly, 283. 

Reinders executed at Leeuwarden, 48. 

Religion, liberty in, asked for, 97; demanded, 277. 

Remonstrants, why so called, 126; had sympathizers in Synod of 
Dort, 146; their tenets, 147; cited before the Synod, 153; their 
arrival, 154; will not yield the word "Conference," 154; com- 
plain of their treatment, 158; present a treatise, 158; expulsion 
of, from the Synod, 159; condemnation of, published, 160 seq. ; 
under arrest in the Hague, 180; persecuted, 181; lament of, 182. 

Requesens, Don Louis de, 86; death of, 92. 

Revolution, first outbreak of its spirit in a church-assembly, 272. 

Revision of liturgy necessary, 72. 

Rhetoricians, topics discussed by them, 37. 

Richelieu on Van Aersens, 122. 

Roell, Herman Alexander, life of, 237; his view of the death of 
the saints, 238; of the generation of the Son, 289; on relation 
between Persons of the Trinity, 239. 

Roland, Madame, her exclamation, 253. 

Rolandus, Jacobus, adsessor of the Synod of Dort, 142. 
28 



326 



INDEX. 



Eoman Catholic Church, strength of, in Netherlands, 281. 
Rousseau, influence of his works, 274. 

Sabbath, Cocceius on, the, 201. 

Saravia, Adrian, sends Confession of faith to Calvin, 58; debate 

with Coornhert, 119. 
Satirical verses on Great Synod of Dort, 164. 
Saurin, Jacques, on falsehoods, 258. 
Schimmelpenninck, 286. 
Schisms in the Church accounted for, 298. 
Schortinghuis, his mysticism, 261. 
Schrader, E. W., 264. 
Scholte, H. P., 299, 300 seq. 
Scotus, Duns, 204. 

Scultetus, Abraham, member of com. on Canons, 167. 

Seceders, strength of, 299; forbidden to hold service, 302. 

Sen serf, Walter, lecture-course of, 257. 

Sentence against Remonstrants, 160. 

Sermons, directions on, by Synod of Wezel, 78. 

Simons, Menno, 47 seq. 

Spener, 220. 

Spinoza, Benedict de, 192; youth of, 226; view of the Bible, 227; 
of Christian religion, 227; his trade, 228; teaching concerning 
God's existence, 229; concerning divine liberty, 230; excom- 
munication of, 230; called to Heidelberg, 231. 

Spinozism, 231. 

Stadtholder, The Prince, leaves the Netherlands, 276; returns, 288. 
State, The, claims of, 121; refuses to give up claims on the 

Church, 183; peculiar attitude toward the Church, 188; regains 

supervision over the Church, 298. 
Staten-bybel, The, why so called, 175. 

States-General, The, gain strength, 109; favor Zwinglian view of 
Church-polity, 110; make declaration concerning the Remon- 
strance, 133; appoint a conference, 134; acts of 1611, 134; 
direction concerning ordinance, 135; act of 1614, 136; act of 
1616, 137; resolve to convoke a Synod, 138; arrange for the 
Synod, 139; appoint fast-day, 140; receive British delegates, 
140; acts of, read at the Synod, 145; declare judicial capacity 
of Synod, 157; approve expulsion of Remonstrants, 159; con- 
firm sentence against Remonstrants, 162; order translation of 



INDEX. 



327 



Post- Acta, 171; fill committee on translation of the Bible, 174; 
urged to provide for missions, 177; refuse to confirm Church- 
ordinance, 177; receive report of Synod's committee, 180; send 
copies of N. T. to Greek Church, 192; concur in Labadie's 
deposition, 221; refuse to receive an apostolic vicar, 250; de- 
nounce heresy-hunting, 253; resign the government, 278. 

States, The, of Friesland, receive a remonstrance, 126; adopt an 
ordinance, 216; adopt measures against Labadists, 225; action 
of, in regard to Roell, 241 ; receive a memorial from Consistory 
of Leeu warden, 267; sustain magistrates of Leeuwarden, 268; 
change lemma "Orange-Nassau," 273. 

States, The, of Holland, make Coornhert their secretary, 117; act 
of, on Coornhert's pamphlet, 119, order debate between Coorn- 
hert and Saravia to cease, 119; attempt to restore peace at Ley- 
den, 124; receive a remonstrance, 126; order a conference 
= between Arminius and Gomarus, 130; receive Remonstrant 
treatise, 133; forbid ministers preaching on politics, 188; for- 
bid disturbance about Cocceianism, 202; forbid blending of 
study of theology and philosophy, 206; favor Cocceians, 215; 
ordinance adopted by them, 216; issue placards against Spinoza, 
231. 

States, The, Over-Yssel, approve deposition of Van der Os, 261. 

" " Zeeland, concur in Labadie's deposition, 221. 
Students, Voet's advice to, 206. 
Supralapsarians, 146. 

Synod, The General, prepares form for signature by candidates, 
294; refuses to define " conformable to the word of God," 297; 
on Evangelical Hymns, 299 ; on questions for preparatory ser- 
vice, 292, 299; deposes H. De Cock, 300; act of, on lemma 
"Orange-Nassau," 274. 

Synod, The, of Antwerp, 55; revises Confession, 60. 
" " Dordrecht, Provincial, 86 seq. 

" " 1st National, 92 seq. 
" " Great, provision made for it, 139 seq. ; 
day of opening of, 141; officers of, 142; diagram of, 143; doc- 
trinal questions of, 146 seq. ; points in dispute of, 147; deter- 
mines status of Remonstrants, 153; discusses method of settling 
differences, 156; procedure against Remonstrants, 153 seq.; 
insulted, 163 seq.; its doctrines, 166 seq.; appeals for its 
Canons, 170; on Heid. Catechism, 172; orders translation of the 



328 



INDEX. 



Bible, 173; prepares form of subscription, 177; action of, on 
Church-ordinance, 177; adjournment of, 178 seq. ; last session 
of, 178; cost of, 181. 
Synod, The, of Drenthe, 88. 

" Embden, 82 seq. 
" " Groningen Provincial, 300. 

" " Haarlem, Provincial, 125. 

the Hague, 96; act of, concerning Coolhaas, 125. 
" North Holland, 236. 

" South Holland, 129, 171, 176, 202, 236, 255. 
" Middelburg, 99 seq.; condemns Coolhaas, 124. 
" Over-Yssel, 261. 
" " Schoonhoven, 176. 

" Teure, 94. 
• 4 Utrecht, 285. 
" Wezel, 75 seq. 

Taffinus, friend of Arminius, 127. 
Tapper, persecutes Pistorius, 32; Merula, 39. 
Tenets of leaders of Protestant theology, 52. 
Thanksgiving-days, 288. 

Thysius favors appointment of Arminius, 128. 
Toleration, false, 254; universal, advocated, 270. 
Treatise of Remonstrants, 133. 
Treaty of religious peace, 97. 

Trigland, Jacobus, member of com. on Canons, 167. 
Tulip-speculation, 191. 
Turretin, 192. 

Ueberweg, on system of Descartes, 195; on system of Spinoza, 
227. 

Uitenbogart, 126; reconciles Arminius to Consistory of Amster- 
dam, 127; favors appointment of Arminius, 128; his opinion of 
Arminius, 131. 

Uitenhove, John, translator of N. T., 70; of Alasco's liturgy, 71. 
Ultra-Reformed, offended, 97; invite John Casimir, 99. 
Unification of believers in the Netherlands, 58. 
Ursinus presumed to have composed Palatinate liturgy, 72. 
Utrecht, union of, 100; delegates from, at Great Syn. of Dort, 
147; delegates from, oppose citation of Episcopius, 153. 



INDEX 



329 



Utrecht, University of, approves Leibnitz-Wolffian philosophy, 
260. 

Van den Ende, teacher of Spinoza, 226. 

Van der Heyden, Kasper, presides at Synod of Embden, 83. 

Van der Os, errors of, 261. 

Van der Palm, 253; eloquence of, 301. 

Van Driessen, opposes Maty, 259; Venema, 259; Engelhard, 260; 

opposes Leibnitz-Wolffian philosophy, 260. 
Van Holen, Musius, addresses Syn. of Dort, 180'; reports at the 

Hague, 180. 
Van Leenhof, Frederic, book of, 231. 

Van Prinsterer, Groen, on Erasmus 27; on state of Ref. Church 

in 18th century, 244; reaction against rationalism, 298. 
Van Raalte, A. C, 304. 

Van Schurman, A. M., learning of, 220; invites Labadie, 220. 

follows Labadie to Amsterdam, 222; death of, 224. 
Van Stralen, Henry, 286. 
Van Thuynen on faith, 258. 

Van Wingen, Godfried, advice of, respecting new Confession, 58. 

Veere, scene of Labadie's work, 221. 

Venema on doctrine of election, 259. 

Vicar, apostolic, rejected by the States, 251. 

Vitringa, Campeggius, on Labadists, 224; replies to Roell, 240. 

Voet, G-ysbert, 192; attacks Cartesianism, 197; attacks Cocceian- 

ism, 202; life of, 205 seq. ; his opinion on comets, 233; quotes 

Athanasius, 246. 

Voetians, their view of Church-polity, 214; opinion of, of 

Cocceians, 214; divisions of, 216; mode of living, 216. 
Volckwinner, Cornelius, printer of Alasco's liturgy, 71. 
Voltaire, influence of his works, 253, 274. 
Vorstius appointed Professor in Leyden, 133. 
Vosbergen, Josius, suggestion of, at Syn. of Dort, 142. 

Walaeus, Antonius, member of com. on Canons, 167. 
Walloon Church, spread of its faith in the Netherlands, 54. 

" Churches, distinctive names of, 55. 

" early Synods, 55. 

" Confession of faith, 83. 
Wezel, city of refuge, 67 ; receives silver cups, 67. 



330 



INDEX. 



Wickliffe, 15. 

Wiger, Peter, pleads for Erastianism, 268. 

William, Prince of Orange, 52; leans to Zwinglian Church-polity, 

91 ; looks to France for help, 99 ; assassinated, 109. 
William II. died, 188. 

William III., Stadtholder, 188; favors Voetians, 215; commands 
adoption of ordinance, 216; death of, 216; refuses convocation 
of Synod, 215. 

William I., King, proclaimed, 288; appoints com. to frame ordi- 
nance, 289; reply to Scholte's letter, 302; abdicates, 303. 
William II., King, his treatment of the separatists, 303. 
Witsius on Labadists, 224. 
Woerden (see Pistorius). 

Wolzogen, his opinions on Scripture-interpretation, 221. 

Ypey en Dermout, opinion of, respecting Erasmus, 26; trace 
Baptists to the Waldenses, 44. 

Zerbolt, 21. 

Zeeland, ministers of, send letters to Scotch Church, 192; cove- 
nant established by, 246. 
Zurich, edict of, against Baptists, 44. 

Zwingle, dispute of, with Grebel and Mants, 43; view of, con- 
cerning Church-polity, 54. 
Zwinglians, doctrine of, concerning Lord's Supper, 53. 





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